THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 


"WHAT   WE    SEEK   is   THE   REIGN   OF  LAW,    BASED 

UPON  THE  CONSENT  OF  THE  GOVERNED  AND  SUSTAINED 
BY     THE     ORGANIZED     OPINION      OF      MANKIND." 

WOODROW  WILSON:  Addressed 
ML  VernoHy  July  4,  1918. 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

TODAY  AND  TOMORROW 


A  Discussion  of  International  Organization 
Present  and  to  Come 


BY 

HORACE  MEYER  KALLEN,  Pn.D. 


BOSTON 

Marshall  Jones  Company 

MD    CCCC    XIX 


COPYRIGHT,     IQl8,     BY     MARSHALL     JONES     COMPANY 


THE-PLIMPTON- PRESS 

NOBWOOD-MASS-U-S-A 


PREFACE 

THE  preface  of  a  work  is  mostly  retrospect  and 
summary,    printed    first,    but    conceived    and 
written  last.     Its  virtue  is  that  it  gives  a  writer  a 
chance  to  overtake  events.    In  the  present  instance, 
the  virtue  is  maximal.    On  September  27,  1918,  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House,  New  York  City,  President 
Wilson  made  the  most  recent  of  his  classic  statements 
of  the  issues  between  the  democracies  of  the  world 
and  the  Central  Powers.    Whatever  the  motives  of 
the  war  may  have  been  in  the  beginning,  today,  he 
said,   "the  common  will  of  mankind  has  been  sub- 
stituted   for    the    particular   purposes    of   individual 
states."    The  war  is  "a  peoples'  war,  and  peoples  of 
all  sorts  and  races,  of  every  degree  of  power  and  variety 
of  fortune,  are  involved  in  its  sweeping  processes  of 
change  and  settlement."    Its  issues  are  peoples'  issues, 
and  he  is  at  this  moment  gladly  making  reply  to  a 
challenge  of  peoples,  is  answering  the  demand  "of 
assemblies  and  associations  of  many  kinds  made  up  of 
plain  workaday  people"  that  their  Governments  "shall 
tell  them  plainly  what  it  is,  exactly  what  it  is,  that 
they  are  seeking  in  this  war,  and  what  they  think  the 
items  of  final  settlement  shall  be."    His  reply  is  that 
the  settlement  must  aim  at  "secure  and  lasting  peace"; 
that  such  a  peace  has,  of  course,  its  price,  and  that  this 
price  must  be  paid.    The  price  is  "impartial  justice  in 
every  item  of  the  settlement,  no  matter  whose  interest 
is  crossed;  and  not  only  impartial' justice,  but  also  the 


386663 


vi  PREFACE 

satisfaction  of  the  several  peoples  whose  fortunes  are 
dealt  with."  There  is  only  one  instrument  "by  which 
it  can  be  made  certain  that  the  agreements  of  the 
peace  will  be  honored  and  fulfilled."  This  instrument 
is  —  the  League  of  Nations.  Its  constitution,  hence, 
"and  the  clear  definition  of  its  objects  must  be  a  part, 
is  in  a  sense  the  most  essential  part,  of  the  peace  settle- 
ment itself.  ...  It  is  necessary  to  guarantee  the 
peace,  and  the  peace  cannot  be  guaranteed  as  an  after- 
thought." The  League  of  Nations  is,  in  a  word,  to  be 
the  insurance  of  mankind  against  assault  and  treachery, 
and  this  insurance  must  rest  upon  at  least  these  five 
conditions: 

First:  The  impartial  justice  meted  out  must  involve 
no  discrimination  between  those  to  whom  we  wish  to 
be  just  and  those  to  whom  we  do  not  wish  to  be  just. 
It  must  be  a  justice  that  plays  no  favorites  and  knows 
no  standard  but  the  equal  rights  of  the  several  peoples 
concerned; 

Second:  No  special  or  separate  interest  of  any  single 
nation  or  any  group  of  nations  can  be  made  the  basis 
of  any  part  of  the  settlement  which  is  not  consistent 
with  the  common  interest  of  all; 

Third:  There  can  be  no  leagues  or  alliance  or  special 
covenants  and  understandings  within  the  general  and 
common  family  of  the  League  of  Nations; 

Fourth,  and  more  specifically:  There  can  be  no 
special,  selfish  economic  combinations  within  the  league 
and  no  employment  of  any  form  of  economic  boycott 
or  exclusion  except  as  the  power  of  economic  penalty 
by  exclusion  from  the  markets  of  the  world  may  be 
vested  in  the  League  of  Nations  itself  as  a  means  of 
discipline  and  control; 


PREFACE  vii 

Fifth:  All  international  agreements  and  treaties  of 
every  kind  must  be  made  known  in  their  entirety  to 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

The  League  of  Nations,  Mr.  Wilson  concludes,  in 
sum,  is  to  be  The  Structure  of  Lasting  Peace. 

In  view  of  the  economic  and  military  rivalries  which 
led  up  to  the  war;  of  the  secret  understandings  and 
agreements  made  during  the  war  —  on  the  side  of  the 
democratic  powers,  at  least,  now  frankly  and  happily 
repudiated;  in  view  of  the  events  of  the  war  itself,  no 
other  conclusion  was  possible.  It  is  the  conclusion  of 
the  conscience  of  the  world,  expressed  by  Mr.  Wilson 
with  characteristic  elevation  of  tone  and  perfection  of 
form. 

This  conclusion  is  the  theme  of  the  present  study. 
For  the  past  year  and  longer  a  body  of  men  of  affairs, 
university  men  and  journalists,  mostly  editors,  have 
given  themselves  to  the  collective  consideration  of  the 
economic  and  political  relations  between  states  and 
peoples  in  so  far  as  these  have  been  factors  in  causing, 
and  must  be  dealt  with  in  ending,  this  civil  war. 
The  League  of  Nations  was  inevitably  one  of  the  ways 
of  relating  peoples  and  states  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace  on  which  research  was  to  be  undertaken  and  a 
report  made.  A  committee,  consisting  of  Mr.  Ralph  S. 
Rounds  of  the  New  York  Bar,  and  the  writer,  were 
designated  to  organize  and  conduct  an  investigation, 
of  which  the  result  is  the  present  monograph.  Such 
virtue  as  it  may  be  found  to  possess  it  owes  to  the 
relentless  and  patient  analysis,  the  painstaking  criti- 
cism made  by  Mr.  Rounds  of  the  proposals,  evidences, 
and  material  brought  together,  collated  and  set  forth 
by  the  writer.  The  faults  are  the  writer's  own.  What- 


viii  PREFACE 

ever  they  may  be,  they  are  incident  in  an  attempt  to 
discover  as  conscientiously  and  impartially  as  we 
knew  how,  what,  in  the  light  of  the  history  and  the 
character  of  international  quarrels,  of  past  agreements 
and  present  purposes,  of  old  institutions  improved  and 
new  ones  created,  the  objects  and  constitution  of  the 
League  of  Nations  might  be,  the  clear  definition  of 
which,  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  said, 
"must  be  a  part,  is  in  a  sense  the  most  essential  part, 
of  the  peace  settlement  itself." 

HORACE  M.  KALLEN 

NEW  YORK  CITY 
i  October  1918 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


INTRODUCTION:    THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  AND  THE 

TERMS  OF  PEACE xi 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE i  v 

PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 18 

THE  ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  OF 

NATIONS 28 

I.  The  Purpose  of  the  League  of  Nations    ...  28 

II.  Membership  in  the  League  of  Nations    ...  3o 

III.  Principles  of  the  League  of  Nations  Defining 

International  Relations 35 

IV.  The  Organization  of  the  League  of  Nations  .  4a 

A.  The  International  Council 4a 

B.  The  International  Commissions    ...  47 

The  International  Commerce  Com- 
mission     62 

Raw  Materials 71 

International  Ways ?4 

Airways ?4 

Waterways 76 

Highways 7$ 

Shipping 79 

The  International  Finance  Commis- 
sion       88 

The    International    Commission   on 

Armaments 97 

ix 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The    International    Commission    on 

Central  Africa 106 

The    International    Commission    on 

Undeveloped  Countries    ....  109 

Morocco  and  Persia 1 1 1 

China     116 

Turkey 118 

The    International    Commission    on 

Education 127 

The    International    Commission    on 

Hygiene      i33 

The    International    Commission    on 

Conditions  of  Labor i35 

C.  The    Ministry    of    the    International 

Council i4o 

D.  The  International  Court 1^2 

V.  The  Compensation  of  International  Officers  .  i4y 

VI.   Relations  of  International  Officers  to  Constit- 
uent States  and  to  the  League  of  Nations     .  i48 

VII.  The  Enforcement  of  International  Decrees     .  i48 

VIII.  The  Revenues  of  the  League  of  Nations     .    .  i53 

IX.   Publicity i55 

X.  Amendment  to  the  International  Code    ...  166 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION:  THE  WORLD  MADE  SAFE 

FOR  DEMOCRACY      168 

POSTSCRIPT:  ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE  i63 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  AND  THE 
TERMS  OF  PEACE 

ON  January  8,  1918,  Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of 
the  United  States,  addressed  the  two  houses  of 
Congress  on  the  terms  of  peace.  He  made  the  address 
at  this  time  because  of  the  call  of  Revolutionary 
Russia,  at  bay  at  Brest-Litovsk.  He  made  it  to 
reassure  Russia  upon  the  attitude  of  the  democratic 
powers  toward  the  Russian  democracy,  and  to  set 
forth  explicitly  the  conditions  upon  which  a  general 
peace  could  be  established.  These  conditions  were 
fourteen  in  number,  viz: 

ONE 

Open  covenants  of  peace,  openly  arrived  at,  after 
which  there  shall  be  no  private  international  under- 
standings of  any  kind,  but  diplomacy  shall  proceed 
always  frankly  and  in  the  public  view. 

TWO 

Absolute  freedom  of  navigation  upon  the  seas, 
outside  territorial  waters,  alike  in  peace  and  in  war, 
except  as  the  seas  may  be  closed  in  whole  or  in  part 
by  international  action  for  the  enforcement  of  inter- 
national covenants. 

THREE 

The  removal,  so  far  as  possible,  of  all  economic 
barriers  and  the  establishment  of  an  equality  of  trade 


XI 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

conditions  among  all  the  nations  consenting  to  the 
peace  and  associating  themselves  for  its  maintenance. 

FOUR 

Adequate  guarantees  given  and  taken  that  national 
armaments  will  be  reduced  to  the  lowest  point  con- 
sistent with  domestic  safety. 

FIVE 

A  free,  open-minded  and  absolutely  impartial  ad- 
justment of  all  colonial  claims  based  upon  a  strict 
observance  of  the  principle  that  in  determining  all 
such  questions  of  sovereignty  the  interests  of  the 
populations  concerned  must  have  equal  weight  with 
the  equitable  claims  of  the  government  whose  title  is 
to  be  determined. 

six 

The  evacuation  of  all  Russian  territory  and  such 
settlement  of  all  questions  affecting  Russia  as  will 
secure  the  best  and  freest  cooperation  of  the  other 
nations  of  the  world  in  obtaining  for  her  an  unhampered 
and  unembarrassed  opportunity  for  the  independent 
determination  of  her  own  political  development  and 
national  policy  and  assure  her  of  a  sincere  welcome 
into  the  society  of  free  nations  under  institutions  of 
her  own  choosing;  and,  more  than  a  welcome,  assist- 
ance also  of  every  kind  that  she  may  need  and  may 
herself  desire.  The  treatment  accorded  Russia  by 
her  sister  nations  in  the  months  to  come  will  be  the 
acid  test  of  their  good  will,  of  their  comprehension  of 
her  needs  as  distinguished  from  their  own  interests, 
and  of  their  intelligent  and  unselfish  sympathy. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

SEVEN 

Belgium,  the  whole  world  will  agree,  must  be  evacu- 
ated and  restored,  without  any  attempt  to  limit  the 
sovereignty  which  she  enjoys  in  common  with  the  other 
free  nations.  No  other  single  act  will  serve  as  this  will 
to  restore  confidence  among  the  nations  in  the 
laws  which  they  have  themselves  set  and  demanded 
for  the  government  of  their  relations  with  one  another. 
Without  this  healing  act  the  whole  structure  and 
validity  of  international  law  is  forever  impaired. 

EIGHT 

All  French  territory  should  be  freed  and  the  invalid 
portions  restored  and  the  wrong  done  to  France  by 
Prussia  in  1871  in  the  matter  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  which 
has  unsettled  the  peace  of  the  world  for  nearly  fifty 
years,  should  be  righted  in  order  that  peace  may  once 
more  be  made  secure  in  the  interest  of  all. 

NINE 

A  readjustment  of  the  frontiers  of  Italy  should  be 
effected  along  clearly  recognizable  lines  of  nationality. 

TEN 

The  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary,  whose  place  among 
the  nations  we  wish  to  see  safeguarded  and  assured, 
should  be  accorded  the  freest  opportunity  of  autono- 
mous development. 

ELEVEN 

Roumania,  Serbia  and  Montenegro  should  be  evac- 
uated; occupied  territories  restored;  Serbia  accorded 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

free  and  secure  access  to  the  sea;  and  the  relations  of 
the  several  Balkan  states  to  one  another  determined  by 
friendly  counsel  along  historically  established  lines  of 
allegiance  and  nationality;  and  international  guar- 
antees of  the  political  and  economic  independence  and 
territorial  integrity  of  the  several  Balkan  states  should 
be  entered  into. 

TWELVE 

The  Turkish  portions  of  the  present  Ottoman  empire 
should  be  assured  a  secure  sovereignty,  but  the  other 
nationalities  which  are  now  under  Turkish  rule  should 
be  assured  an  undoubted  security  of  life  and  an  abso- 
lutely unmolested  opportunity  of  autonomous  develop- 
ment, and  the  Dardanelles  should  be  permanently 
opened  as  a  free  passage  to  the  ships  and  commerce  of 
all  nations  under  international  guarantee. 

THIRTEEN 

An  independent  Polish  state  should  be  erected  which 
should  include  territories  inhabited  by  indisputably 
Polish  populations,  which  should  be  assured  a  free  and 
secure  access  to  the  sea,  and  whose  political  and 
economic  independence  should  be  guaranteed  by 
international  covenant. 

FOURTEEN 

A  general  association  of  nations  must  be  formed 
under  specific  covenants  for  the  purpose  of  affording 
mutual  guarantees  of  political  independence  and  terri- 
torial integrity  to  great  and  small  states  alike. 

A  day  or  two  later,  Lloyd  George,  answering  the 
same  call,  made  a  statement  which  was  practically  an 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

Anglo-French  declaration.  It  was  in  substance  identi- 
cal with  President  Wilson's.  The  latter,  on  Febru- 
ary n,  restated  his  peace-terms  in  the  form  of  four 
principles,  of  which  the  fourteen  conditions  of  Janu- 
ary 8  might  be  regarded  as  applications.  These  prin- 
ciples were: 

First  -  -  That  each  part  of  the  final  settlement  must 
be  based  upon  the  essential  justice  of  that  particular 
case  and  upon  such  adjustments  as  are  most  likely  to 
bring  a  peace  that  will  be  permanent. 

Second  -  -  That  peoples  and  provinces  are  not  to  be 
bartered  about  from  sovereignty  to  sovereignty  as  if 
they  were  mere  chattels  and  pawns  in  a  game,  even  the 
great  game,  now  forever  discredited,  of  the  balance  of 
power;  but  that, 

Third — Every  territorial  settlement  involved  in 
this  war  must  be  made  in  the  interest  and  for  the 
benefit  of  the  populations  concerned,  and  not  as  a 
part  of  any  mere  adjustment  or  compromise  of  claims 
among  rival  States;  and, 

Fourth  —  That  all  well-defined  national  aspirations 
shall  be  accorded  the  utmost  satisfaction  that  can  be 
accorded  them  without  introducing  new  or  perpetuating 
old  elements  of  discord  and  antagonism  that  would  be 
likely  in  time  to  break  the  peace  of  Europe,  and  conse- 
quently of  the  world. 

This  whole  conception  of  the  rules  and  conditions  of 
peace  was  endorsed  by  the  Inter-Allied  Labor  and 
Socialist  Conference  on  February  28,  its  memorandum 
on  the  matter  being  hardly  anything  more  than  a 
restatement  of  the  terms  of  the  addresses  of  January  8 
and  February  n.  These  are,  to  date,  the  terms  of 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

peace  of  the  whole  liberal  world,  regardless  of  class  or 
station.  On  July  4,  1918,  in  a  very  memorable  address 
at  Mount  Veraon,  Mr.  Wilson  advanced  his  position  a 
great  way  farther.  With  the  same  essential  outlook 
and  aspiration  as  in  the  earlier  addresses,  he  declared 
the  Allied  War  Aims  to  be  (i)  the  destruction  or 
reduction  to  impotence  of  every  arbitrary  power  that 
can  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world;  (2)  a  settlement 
on  the  basis  of  the  free  acceptance  of  the  conditions 
of  the  settlement  by  the  peoples  immediately  con- 
cerned; (3)  the  consent  of  all  the  nations  to  be  gov- 
erned by  the  same  principles  of  honor  and  of  respect 
for  the  common  law  of  civilized  society  that  gov- 
ern the  individual  citizens  of  modern  states;  (4)  the 
establishment  of  an  organization  of  peace.  Ultimately, 
Mr.  Wilson's  whole  view  rests  upon  three  conceptions 
—  nationality,  democracy,  economic  as  well  as  political, 
and  the  rule  of  law.  All  the  slogans  of  the  new  time 
may  be  subsumed  under  them-  "the  self-determina- 
tion of  peoples,"  "no  annexations,"  and  so  on.  The 
last  —  the  rule  of  law  —  is  of  particular  importance, 
for  without  it,  there  might  well  be  difficulty  in  recon- 
ciling the  other  two.  This  is  why  the  principles 
declared  on  February  n  call  attention  to  an  element 
not  so  conspicuous  in  the  specific  items  of  the  address 
of  January  8.  This  element  is  the  general  condition  of 
permanent  peace.  Each  item  of  the  settlement  must 
be  taken  in  its  setting  in  the  international  totality: 
"essential  justice"  must  be  harmonized  with  "adjust- 
ments most  likely  to  bring  a  peace  that  will  be  perma- 
nent." The  principle  of  nationality,  in  a  word,  which 
underlies  the  four  rules  of  negotiation,  is  itself  to  be 
secured  only  by  a  principle  of  internationalism,  by  an 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

ideal  of  the  stability  and  peace  of  the  whole  political 
complex  of  mankind.  Such  an  ideal  involves  a  law  of 
nations  which  shall  apply  equally  to  all  states  and 
shall  safeguard  the  peace  that  is  made  against  violation 
in  any  way  whatsoever.  To  create  such  a  law  and 
such  a  safeguard  requires  a  degree  of  international 
organization  likely  to  give  pause  both  to  the  fearful 
and  the  skeptical.  It  requires  the  League  of  Nations 
as  a  framework  and  sanction  for  the  terms  of  peace. 
Whether  the  president  has  completely  realized  this  is 
not  clear  either  from  the  four  principles  of  February  n 
or  the  fourteen  conditions  of  January  8.  The  League 
is  the  fourteenth  of  those  conditions,  and  its  limitations 
are  definite.  It  is  to  guarantee  "political  independence^ 
and  territorial  integrity  to  great  and  small  states 
alike,"  but  nowadays  economic  subjection  goes  hand 
hi  hand  with  "political  independence,"  and  cultural 
persecution  with  territorial  integrity.  Thus,  the  peace 
conference  might  carry  out  to  the  full  the  nine  stipula- 
tions that  deal  with  the  liberation  of  oppressed  nation- 
alities, and  the  League  of  Nations  might  guarantee  to 
the  full  their  political  independence  and  territorial 
integrity,  yet  leave  them  not  a  whit  better  off.  Prior 
to  the  war  Serbia  had  territorial  integrity  and  political 
independence,  but  she  was  being  crushed  by  Austrian 
tariffs  and  the  lack  of  harbors,  so  that  her  politics 
became  a  plaything  of  Austrian  intrigue  and  her 
territory  either  a  wilderness  or  a  servant  of  the  Austrian 
will.  Territorial  integrity  and  political  independence 
mean  nothing  without  economic  opportunity.  Now 
this  is  demanded  equally  for  all  nations  in  the  first  and 
second  articles,  but  unless  it  has  a  stronger  sanction 
than  the  mere  convention  of  a  peace  conference,  what 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

hope  has  it?  There  have  been  conventions  and  con- 
ferences before  this,  —  at  Berlin,  at  Algeciras,  at  the 
Hague,  —  and  what  are  they?  Scraps  of  paper,  all, 
hi  the  hands  of  insidious  diplomacy  or  murderous 
brutality.  Unless  the  "freedom  of  the  seas"  and  the 
"equality  of  trade  conditions"  are  established  by 
law  and  maintained  by  organized  and  lawful  agencies 
what  hope  is  there  for  them?  Or  what  hope  for  a 
genuine  open  diplomacy?  For  if  the  governments  of 
two  nations  decide  to  commit  the  blood  and  treasure 
of  then-  peoples,  without  their  consent  and  unknown 
to  them,  to  whatever  adventure  of  intrigue  or  profit 
against  the  peace  of  another,  and  usually  weaker, 
nation,  what  is  to  prevent?  What  is  to  prevent,  unless 
it  be  a  law  prohibiting  just  that,  backed  by  a  force 
able  effectively  to  punish  its  violation?  And  again, 
who  is  to  give,  and  who  is  to  take,  the  "adequate 
guarantees"  for  regulation  of  armament?  Each  state 
to  all  the  others?  What  will  it  pledge?  How  will  it 
be  punished  if  it  breaks  its  word?  On  the  matter  of 
regulation  of  armament  a  concert  of  some  kind  is 
indispensable  if  regulation  is  to  be  more  than  a  mere 
word.  The  custody  of  new  military  inventions  alone 
would  require  an  international  agency;  and  assurance 
that  the  states  signatory  to  an  agreement  on  disarma- 
ment have  kept  their  words  would  require  international 
inspection  and  supervision. 

These  fourteen  conditions  of  peace,  then,  require  if 
they  are  to  be  realized  and  to  be  maintained  after  they 
are  realized,  a  framework  of  international  law  and 
international  organization  having  a  far  larger  scope 
than  that  suggested  by  the  last  condition.  The  League 
of  Nations  they  require  will  have  to  be  of  far  wider 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

scope  and  completer  organization  than  anything  yet 
formally  suggested.  It  is  the  whole  of  which  the 
separate  conditions  of  peace  are  interdependent  parts. 
Its  law  must  be  the  law  of  the  whole  by  which  all  the 
parts  must  be  regulated.  Without  it  any  peace  will 
be  no  more  than  patchwork:  with  it  only,  a  just  peace 
can  be  established  and  preserved. 

Now  the  establishment  of  a  just  peace  and  the  provi- 
sion for  its  maintenance  by  a  League  of  Nations  rests 
upon  the  defeat  of  Germany  and  the  destruction  of  the 
power  of  her  rulers.  Without  such  a  defeat  the 
arrangements  of  Brest-Litovsk  will  stand,  and  the 
entrenchment  of  reaction  in  Rumania,  the  Ukraine, 
Poland,  Finland,  Lithuania,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and 
Courland  will  be  consummated.  Today  the  masters 
of  Germany  are  fighting  not  for  victory  abroad  but  for 
the  preservation  of  their  dominion  at  home.  Their 
methods  are  those  they  have  made  familiar  in  the 
course  of  four  years  of  battle:  to  offset  disaster  in  the 
field  with  peace-maneuvers,  and  to  offer  for  peace 
everything  but  the  essentials.  It  does  not  matter  to 
them  what  they  do  with  their  "cannon-fodder,"  so 
long  as  their  own  interests  and  privileges  are  preserved. 
They  are  afraid  of  the  awakening  which  will  turn  their 
cannon-fodder  into  human  beings.  Defeat  brought 
freedom  to  the  people  of  Russia;  nothing  less  can  bring 
freedom  to  the  people  of  Germany.  For  the  people 
defeat  is  purgation.  Once  they  have  been  defeated, 
and  thus  freed,  they  have  their  place  to  claim  and  to 
hold  in  the  family  of  nations  as  a  decent  member  of 
that  family.  Short  of  defeat,  agreement  on  peace- 
terms  which  will  destroy  militarism  and  imperialism 
is  inconceivable.  The  evidence  of  defeat  will  be  the 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

undebated  and  unconditional  agreement  to  the  League 
of  Nations,  powerful  enough  to  protect  the  little  nations, 
to  control  armaments,  to  maintain  the  equality  of 
economic  opportunity,  and  to  protect  the  peoples  and 
resources  of  Africa  and  the  undeveloped  countries. 
Such  a  league  is  the  will  of  the  great  liberal  masses  of 
Europe  and  America.  Such  a  league  is  implied  in  the 
statements  of  the  most  powerful  spokesman  of  these 
masses,  who  is  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Such  a  league  is  inevitable. 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

TODAY  AND  TOMORROW 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 
TODAY  AND  TOMORROW 


i 

THE     LEAGUE     OF    NATIONS    MUST    BE 

THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  is  inevitable.  The 
necessities  of  modern  economic  endeavor  com- 
pel it.  From  these  spring  the  manoeuvres  of  dip- 
lomats and  the  competition  in  armaments  which 
anteceded  the  great  war.  These  have  compelled  all 
states  to  take  sides.  Except  in  a  purely  formal  and 
technical  sense  there  is  no  longer  any  such  thing  as  an 
actual  neutral.  The  need  of  supplies  of  raw  materials 
and  munitions  from  extra-territorial,  mostly  foreign, 
sources,  makes  every  belligerent  economically  de- 
pendent and  every  neutral  an  accessory  to  one  side  or 
the  other  in  the  degree  in  which  it  trades  more  with 
one  side  or  the  other.  Every  neutral  becomes  subject 
to  policing  and  retaliation  by  belligerents.  Why  do 
we  think  of  Sweden  as  pro-German,  and  squeeze  her, 
though  she  has  been  acting  within  her  technically 
just  rights?  Why  are  Norway  and  Holland  and 
Denmark  squeezed  by  the  belligerents  almost  to  the 
breaking  point?  What  is  driving  pro-German  Spain 
into  a  condition  of  belligerency  against  Germany? 
What,  before  we  entered  the  war,  lay  behind  the  es- 
sential content  of  President  Wilson's  speech  of  accept- 
ance of  the  nomination  to  the  presidency,  Septem- 
ber 2,  1916,  or  his  speech  in  Cincinnati  on  October  26  of 

i 


iV  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

the  same  year?  "No  nation,"  he  said  in  September, 
"can  any  longer  remain  neutral  against  any  wilful 
disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  world."  "War,"  he 
said  in  October,  "now  has  such  a  scale  that  the  posi- 
tion of  the  neutrals  sooner  or  later  becomes  intoler- 
able." The  President  was  forced  to  these  utterances 
by  the  fact  that  Great  Britain,  like  Germany,  had 
continued  to  violate  American  rights  of  neutrality. 
She  had  prevented  the  shipping  of  non-contraband 
to  Germany.  She  had  seriously  deranged  our  trade 
with  the  Scandinavian  states  and  the  Low  countries, 
regardless  of  the  two  strong  protests  of  our  govern- 
ment. Warfare,  her  replies  told  us,  politely,  in  sub- 
stance, knows  no  neutrality.  In  retaliation  Germany 
added  to  her  other  atrocities  the  submarine  campaign 
to  derange  our  trade  with  England.  Then  the  Presi- 
dent sent  Colonel  House  to  Europe  to  establish  a 
real  freedom  of  the  seas.  But  the  Germans  sank  the 
Lusitania  and  neutrality  became  in  fact  impossible. 
America  is  at  war. 

America  is  at  war,  and  war  is  international.  The 
rise  of  the  industrial  economy  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury brought  with  it  the  dependence  of  every  indus- 
trial state,  including  the  greatest,  on  one  sort  or 
another  of  raw  materials  from  beyond  its  borders. 
Each  tried  to  get  them  by  seeking  to  establish  a 
monopoly  for  itself  in  some  savage  or  undeveloped 
country,  and  where  it  could  not  gain  them  so,  by 
making  economic  and  other  treaties  with  its  European 
neighbors.  In  the  course  of  time  these  treaties  be- 
came more  than  economic  in  their  implications.  They 
began  to  involve  arrangements  for  defense  and  offense 
as  well.  Even  England  was  in  the  end  persuaded 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE          3 

from  her  "splendid  isolation"  into  understandings 
with  France  and  with  Russia.  Europe  became  a 
congeries  of  competing  alliances  pulling  in  opposed 
directions  wherever  an  economic  gain  was  to  be  made, 
and  arming  against  each  other.  They  called  this 
the  Balance  of  Power.  "The  fundamental  idea  of  a 
Balance  of  Power,"  says  Norman  Angell  (The  Political 
Conditions  of  Allied  Success,  p.  171),  "was  stated  by 
Polybius.  *  Never,'  he  said,  *  should  any  one  be 
allowed  to  acquire  power  so  great  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible for  you  to  dispute  with  him  concerning  your 
just  rights.'  So  no  state  or  group  of  states  should  be 
allowed  to  obtain  such  power  that  others  could  not 
dispute  with  it  or  them  on  terms  of  equality. 

"  But  how,  in  practical  politics,  are  we  to  determine 
when  a  group  has  become  preponderantly  powerful? 
We  know  to  our  cost  that  military  power  is  extremely 
difficult  of  just  estimate.  It  cannot  be  weighed  and 
balanced  exactly.  So  in  political  practice  the  Balance 
of  Power  means  a  Rivalry  of  Power,  because  each,  to 
be  on  the  safe  side,  wants  to  be  just  a  bit  stronger  than 
the  other.  You  get  a  condition  indeed  in  which 
security  for  both  depends  upon  each  being  stronger 
than  the  other.  In  the  end  there  is  bound  to  be  a 
trial  of  strength.  It  creates  of  itself  the  very  condition 
it  set  out  to  prevent." 

War,  in  sum,  is  nowadays  waged  by  alliances  or- 
ganized in  the  hope  of  preventing  precisely  the  eventu- 
ality they  create.  Only  where  the  distribution  of 
power  is  in  a  preponderance  so  great  that,  no  matter 
what  factors  in  the  situation  are  considered,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  issue,  can  an  alliance  or  entente 
of  any  sort  be  effective.  Such  alliances  as  the  Euro- 


4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

pean  concert  have  maintained  against  Turkey  or 
China,  for  example,  have  had  in  spite  of  their  predatory 
character  the  effect  of  keeping  the  peace,  and  it  is 
very  probable  that  if  Germany  had  known  the  force 
that  would  eventually  count  against  her,  not  even  she 
would  have  made  war.  War,  in  a  word,  is  prevented, 
not  by  a  balance  of  power,  but  by  a  preponderance  of 
power.  The  larger  the  number  of  states  in  any  defen- 
sive and  offensive  alliance,  the  less  likely  is  any  one  of 
them  to  be  assaulted  by  an  outsider.  Such  alliances 
have  carried  with  them,  and  must  in  the  future  carry 
with  them  still  more,  economic  as  well  as  military 
reciprocities.  The  League  of  Nations  is  simply  an 
alliance  of  this  kind  which  states  shall  make  on  equit- 
able terms  and  which  shall  be  all-inclusive.  Whatever 
security  or  sovereignty  any  state  may  want  to  preserve 
or  to  develop  is  now  dependent  on  the  reciprocal 
guarantees  of  alliance  and  treaty.  ^  No  state  depending 
for  raw  material  on  territory  outside  its  sovereignty  is 
absolutely  sovereign  and  no  sovereignty  is  absolutely 
secure  that  is  exercised  over  materials  essential  to  the 
life  and  prosperity  of  other  states.  If  states  are  to 
retain  their  present  integrity,  then  sovereignty  and 
security  are  possible  only  through  reciprocal  serving 
siei£Sts^ftd-^^  This  is  par- 

ticularly true  for  neutralized  states,  like  Belgium,  and 
small  states,  like  Serbia.  If  "the  principle  of  nation- 
ality" is  actually  to  be  vindicated  by  the  war  and  not 
only  these  states  but  new  ones  like  Poland,  Bohemia, 
Judea,  Finland,  Ukrainia  are  to  have  a  chance  at  "self- 
determination"  and  development,  an  alliance  tanta- 
mount to  a  League  of  Nations  is  indispensable.  Only 
the  fear  of  power  can  prevent  aggression  against  them. 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE          5 

A  return  to  the  status  quo  ante  in  international  relations 
would  still  have  to  involve  the  degree  of  difference 
from  the  status  quo  ante  which  would  be  made  by  the 
creation  of  effective  guarantees  for  the  security  and 
sovereignty  of  small  states.  But  such  guarantees, 
to  be  effective,  would  require  some  organ  for  the 
accommodation  of  differences  and  for  the  arrangement 
of  cooperation  among  the  guarantors.  Without  these, 
war  between  them  becomes,  under  the  conditions  of 
the  status  quo  ante,  inevitable,  and  with  war,  the  small 
states  are  doomed.  With  war,  moreover,  must  come 
sooner  or  later  a  preponderance  of  power  in  a  single 
state  —  such  a  preponderance  as  Germany  has  among 
the  central  powers,  or  which,  if  she  should  be  victorious, 
would  be  hers  in  Europe,  and  ultimately  in  Asia. 
Aggression  on  the  part  of  any  power  must,  as  things 
stand  now,  lead  to  mutual  destruction  or  to  the  ulti- 
mate dominion  of  one  power,  to  an  empire  such  as  the 
pan-Germanists  dream  of.  The  only  alternative  to 
empire,  to  the  hegemony  of  one  state  over  all,  is 

*• federation.     In   the   settlement   of  the   present   war 

imperialism  will  be  confronted  by  internationalism, 
the  rule  of  one  by  the  cooperation  of  all.  The  alterna- 
tive is  absolute.  There  is  no  tertium  quid. 

This  is  recognized  among  both  the  governments  and 
peoples  of  the  democratic  powers.  The  United  States, 
the  British  Empire,  France,  Russia  and  Italy  stand 
committed  to  a  League  of  Nations.  In  France  a 
governmental  commission,  whose  head  is  M.  Leon 
Bourgeois,  has  submitted  to  the  government  a  proposal 
for  its  organization,  and  both  public  and  private 
agencies  are  at  work  on  proposals  in  Great  Britain, 
the  United  States,  Italy.  The  question  before  civilized 


6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

mankind  is  not:  Shall  there  be  a  League  of  Nations? 
The  question  before  mankind  is:  What  sort  of  a  League 
of  Nations  shall  there  be? 

Objections  to  it  come  from  three  types  of  persons. 
There  are  those  whose  interests  are  vested  in  the 
status  quo  ante.  The  Junker  class  everywhere  belongs 
to  this  order.  It  fears  for  its  power  at  home  far  more 
than  for  the  integrity  and  prosperity  of  the  state.  It 
desires  a  peace  which  will  not  shake  this  power,  and 
it  will  make  any  sacrifice  to  retain  it.  As  the  power 
rests  on  the  alliance  of  financial,  armor-making  and 
diplomatic  interests,  no  pfeace  that  it  will  make  can  be 
anything  more  than  a  period  of  recuperation  for  new 
war.  In  the  public  declarations  of  their  governments 
the  democracies  have  ruled  out  that  kind  of  peace. 

Others  honestly  fear  for  the  security  of  their  coun- 
tries. Socially  and  spiritually  they  are  close  to  the 
Junker  classes,  and  their  interests  are  to  some  degree 
coincident.  They  have  their  eyes  on  industrial  develop- 
ment at  home  and  on  trade  and  investment  monopolies 
abroad.  In  the  United  States  they  have  been  organiz- 
ing for  financial  and  industrial  expansion  in  South 
America  and  in  China;  in  England  they  are  the 
champions  of  the  program  of  economic,  to  succeed 
military,  warfare,  with  a  strong  military  organization 
to  back  it  up.  The  loudest  American  voice  of  this 
type  of  interest  is  Mr.  Roosevelt.  Yet  even  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  in  the  days  before  the  passions  of  his  class 
overwhelmed  his  initial  good  sense,  saw  the  inevitable 
conclusion  from  the  international  situation.  In  the 
course  of  a  discussion  of  why  America  should  enter  the 
war  he  said,  "Fear  of  national  destruction  will  prompt 
men  to  do  almost  anything,  and  the  proper  remedy  for 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE          7 

outsiders  to  work  for  is  the  removal  of  the  fear.  If 
Germany  were  absolutely  free  from  the  danger  of  the 
least  aggression  on  her  eastern  and  western  frontiers, 
I  believe  that  German  public  sentiment  would  refuse 
to  sanction  such  acts  as  those  against  Belgium.  The 
only  effective  way  to  free  it  from  this  fear  is  to  have 
outside  nations  like  the  United  States  in  good  faith 
undertake  to  defend  Germany's  honor  and  territorial 
integrity."  The  League  of  Nations  consists  only  in 
making  such  undertakings  general  and  reciprocal. 
The  chances  of  their  failure  are  decreased  in  proportion 
as  the  number  of  undertakers  is  increased.  It  was 
only  Germany  that  violated  Belgium.  Perhaps  it  was 
only  Germany  that  could  have  done  this.  But  if  the 
military  intention  of  England  and  the  military  obliga- 
tions of  the  United  States  to  defend  Belgium  had  been 
clear  and  explicit,  under  the  law  of  nations,  would  the 
Germans  have  dared?  We  know  from  their  own 
mouths  that  they  would  not.  Their  hysterical  hatred 
of  England  was  the  direct  consequence  of  what  they 
held  to  be  British  deception  about  British  intentions. 
Britain's  entry  into  the  war  destroyed  their  initial 
advantage,  and  they  "hated"  in  proportion  to  their 
loss.  On  the  other  side  of  the  shield  which  this  class 
whose  voice  is  Mr.  Roosevelt  raises  against  the  League 
of  Nations  is  the  economic  interest  of  its  various 
countries,  —  that  is,  in  truth,  its  own  economic  interest 
as  a  class.  But  without  trade  and  investment  monop- 
olies abroad,  its  interests  are  starved;  with  them,  it  is 
condemned  to  the  expenses  of  competitive  armament 
and  secret  diplomacy  and,  finally,  to  the  absolute  losses 
of  war.  Its  interests  are  best  served  by  the  "open 
door,"  by  equality  of  economic  opportunity  and  by 


8  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

the  creation  of  a  growing  demand  for  its  manufactures. 
Such  conditions,  however,  only  agreements  tantamount 
to  the  League  of  Nations  can  secure  and  maintain. 

Another  set  of  objections  to  the  League  comes  from 
a  type  of  intellectual  who  has  liberal  preferences  but  a 
conservative  will.  As  one  prominent  American  said  of 
another,  little  less  prominent,  he  means  well,  but  he 
means  well  weakly.  He  has  read  history,  he  is  versed 
in  the  deviousness  and  dishonesty  of  diplomats,  the 
inertia  of  the  masses,  the  rapacity  of  the  interests  and 
the  shallowness  of  public  opinion,  and  these  have  made 
of  his  mind  a  mind  of  desire  without  hope.  He  believes 
in  a  League  of  Nations,  but  —  the  times  are  not  ready 
for  it,  human  nature  is  not  sufficiently  developed,  so  it 
can't  be  adopted,  and  even  if  it  is  adopted,  it  won't 
work. 

His  initial  fallacy  lies  in  his  mental  attitude.  Most 
"facts"  and  obstacles,  particularly  social  facts,  are 
insurmountable  only  when  there  is  no  effective  will  to 
undertake  surmounting  them.  As  a  matter  of  history 
nothing  humanly  worth  while  has  seemed  possible 
when  it  was  first  proposed.  Not  a  scientific  idea  nor  a 
mechanical  invention,  not  a  political  revolution  nor  a 
religious  reform  but  was  met  first  with  "Impossible!" 
"Utopian!"  "Contrary  to  human  nature!"  and  so  on. 
Each  one,  from  the  heliocentric  theory  to  the  flying 
machine,  was  carried  first  by  the  will  and  faith  and 
urgency  of  its  proponents,  and  then  by  the  pressure  of 
events  and  the  gathering  momentum  of  its  own  success. 
In  the  matter  of  the  League  of  Nations  the  same  condi- 
tions hold.  Given  all  the  disillusion  that  history 
generates,  men  who  care  at  all  for  a  freer  and  more 
orderly  life  for  mankind  must  set  their  wills  to  achieve 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE          9 

it  even  against  the  obstruction  of  "facts  of  human 
nature  and  history,"  if  necessary.  They  must  care 
enough  about  the  League  of  Nations  to  face  for  it  any 
obstacle  and  to  take  any  risk.  They  must,  with  the 
great  Foch,  believe  an  offensive  which  has  failed  to  be 
worth  more  for  ultimate  success  than  no  action  at  all. 
They  must  undertake  the  League  of  Nations  as  men 
undertake  battle:  believing  in  victory,  though  prepared 
for  defeat.  "My  right,"  said  Foch,  during  the  most 
critical  period  of  the  first  battle  of  the  Marne,  "is 
defeated,  my  left  is  falling  back.  Good.  I  will 
attack."  He  attacked  and  won  the  Marne.  With 
the  League  of  Nations  things  are  not  so  bad,  however. 
The  facts  do  not  obstruct,  and  the  danger  of  failure  is 
negligible.  Events  have  forced  an  organization  of 
nations  into  being,  and  its  own  best  vindicator  is  the 
growth  of  its  achievement  with  the  growth  of  its  scope, 
and  the  growing  urgency  of  statesmen  that  this  scope 
shall  as  soon  as  possible  be  set  at  the  maximum.  As 
the  armies  of  the  Allies  are  pooled,  so  the  food,  muni- 
tions and  shipping  of  the  Allies  are  pooled.  Already  in 
August  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  English  under-Secretary  of 
State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  speaking  in  London  at  the 
celebration  of  the  fourth  anniversary  of  the  establish- 
ment of  the  International  Commission  on  Revictualling, 
said: 

"The  unity  of  the  alliance  is  due  to  the  realization 
that  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  cause  —  fighting  for 
justice  against  force,  right  against  might.  If  we  are 
merely  going  to  restore  by  our  victory  the  world  to 
what  it  was  before,  then,  I  will  not  say  this  war  has 
been  fought  in  vain,  but  we  shall  have  missed  the 
greatest  chance  ever  offered  to  a  generation  of  men. 


io  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

"We  must  rebuild  the  international  system.  That 
is  why  I  believe  this  commission  is  the  organization 
upon  which  a  League  of  Nations  can  ultimately  be 
built. 

"I  have  said  that  we  are  in  partnership.  It  is  by 
conforming  to  and  extending  that  partnership  that  we, 
perhaps,  could  show  the  way  for  a  future  organization 
of  nations.  I  believe  this  to  be  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity for  statesmanship  ever  offered  to  mankind. 
It  is  our  business  not  to  falter.  Let  us  proceed  with 
the  work  of  which  this  commission  is  an  example. 
Let  us  proceed  to  work  in  other  ways  also.  Thus, 
perchance,  we  shall  find  we  have  advanced  some 
distance  toward  the  great  consummation  of  peace  on 
earth  and  good  will  towards  men." 

A  later  speech  by  the  same  statesman,  September  2, 
voicing  the  views  of  all  the  democratic  powers,  shows 
even  more  clearly  what  the  experience  of  the  war  has 
forced  upon  the  recognition  of  the  governments: 
"It  is,  the  coordination  of  the  allied  needs  and  allied 
resources  with  allied  shipping  which  would  make  an 
overwhelming  economic  power  of  the  alliance  to  which 
we  all  belong."  Lord  Robert  Cecil  is  neither  in  social 
background  nor  intellectual  outlook  distinguished  for 
liberalism.  Yet  he  asks  for  the  uttermost  extension 
of  that  organization  of  the  democratic  powers  which 
is  the  essence  of  the  League  of  Nations.  Some  time 
after  this  was  written  news  of  the  completion  of  the 
organization  was  made  public,  as  the  following  item 
from  the  New  York  Times  shows. 

•v  i 

"WASHINGTON,    Oct.    2. —  The    long    planned 
centralized  control  of  all  the  economic  forces  of 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE        n 

the  nations  fighting  Germany  is  at  last  a  fact.  It 
applies  the  principles  of  the  unified  military  com- 
mand to  raw  materials,  manufactured  products, 
shipping,  finance,  food,  and  the  export  and  import 
relations  of  the  United  States  and  the  co-belliger- 
ents. 

"The  great  plan  was  worked  out  by  President 
Wilson's  so-called  War  Cabinet  and  the  allied 
missions.  It  has  been  approved  by  the  President 
and  the  Premiers  of  the  Entente  nations.  No 
announcement  of  its  consummation  has  been  made 
here;  in  fact,  it  has  rather  been  withheld  from 
publicity.  Some  of  its  details  and  the  fact  that  it 
is  actually  in  operation  have  become  known 
through  developments  in  Paris  and  London. 

"Coordination  is  built  around  the  five  inter- 
allied councils  —  War,  Shipping,  Munitions,  Food, 
and  Finance.  Under  these  special  bodies  com- 
pletion of  a  common  economic  and  industrial 
program  is  now  being  undertaken,  principally 
in  London  and  Paris,  and  limited  to  the  following 
cases:  *  Where  two  or  more  Governments  are 
interested  in  supplies  which  must  be  transported 
overseas  to  supplement  deficiencies  in  local  pro- 
duction, or  where  several  sources  of  supplies  should 
be  agreed  upon,  together  with  the  allotment  and 
method  of  their  distribution  or  utilization,  or 
where  there  might  without  agreement  be  competi- 
tion between  Governments  in  procuring  supplies 
or  a  wasteful  duplication  of  productive  effort/ 

"Subordinate  to  the  interallied  councils  are 
being  organized  commodity  committees  or  execu- 
tives. While  the  interallied  councils  are  com- 


12  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

posed  of  men  of  so-called  Ministerial  or  Cabinet 
rank,  the  committees  will  be  .made  up  of  men  of 
lesser  position,  but  experts  in  their  particular 
commodities. 

"The  committees  will  deal  directly  with  vir- 
tually all  materials  and  commodities  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  These  include  nitrates, 
tungsten,  and  tin,  international  pooling  agree- 
ments for  which  have  recently  been  effected  in 
Paris  and  London,  non-ferrous  metals,  iron  and 
steel,  hides  and  leather,  rubber,  wool,  and  all 
other  raw  materials  or  manufactured  products  of 
which  there  may  be  a  shortage,  or  where  com- 
petitive and  shipping  conditions,  and  the  local 
production  and  distribution  situation  make  control 
desirable.  Pooling  agreements  for  these  latter 
will  be  effected  as  the  necessity  arises. 

"The  committees  will  be  responsible  to  the  five 
interallied  councils.  Any  differences  arising  as  to 
allocation  of  ships  or  material  or  other  matters 
of  a  serious  or  vital  nature,  on  which  the  members 
of  the  interallied  councils  are  unable  to  agree,  will 
be  submitted  to  President  Wilson  and  the  Premiers 
of  the  allied  nations  for  settlement. 

"Food  control  already  has  been  centred  in 
London,  following  Food  Administrator  Hoover's 
recent  visit  abroad  to  attend  the  Interallied  Con- 
ference in  London.  One  of  the  results  of  his  trip, 
it  became  known  today,  was  the  perfection  of  the 
President's  plan  for  centralized  control,  and  its 
acceptance  by  England,  France,  and  Italy. 

"The  Munitions  Council  meets  in  Paris  with 
two  American  representatives,  Assistant  Secretary 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE        i3 

of  War  Stettinius  for  the  War  Department,  and 
L.  L.  Summers  of  the  War  Industries  Board,  per- 
sonal representative  of  Chairman  Baruch  of  that 
organization. 

"America,  through  its  position  as  the  storehouse 
of  the  world,  and  not  less  through  President 
Wilson's  world  leadership,  accepted  by  the  Allies, 
probably  will  be  the  guiding  hand  in  the  plan  for 
centralized  control." 

Far  from  being  impossible  to  adopt,  this  organization 
is  one  whose  adoption  circumstances  have  compelled. 
And  these  remarks  of  the  British  Secretary  show 
another  thing.  They  show  that  the  notion  that  the 
organization  "won't  work"  is  also  derived  from  tradi- 
tion and  inertia  and  not  from  experiment.  In  point  of 
fact  such  organization  as  there  exists  at  present  works 
so  well  that  those  who  are  near  to  its  operations  want 
more  of  it,  not  less  of  it.  Among  the  democratic 
powers,  the  League  of  Nations  is  today  a  going  con- 
cern. Of  course,  it  is  a  creation  of  the  war  and  is  oper- 
ating under  war  conditions.  Of  course,  manufacturers 
and  merchants  and  bankers  and  workers  are  endur- 
ing hardships  and  carrying  burdens  which  they  would 
reject  except  in  the  face  of  a  dangerous  enemy.  But 
it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  international  organi- 
zation is  the  cause  of  the  burdens  and  hardships.  The 
international  organization  is  a  relief  and  mitigation  of 
those.  It  serves  to  abolish  unnecessary  risks,  to 
equalize  responsibility  and  to  prevent  exploitation. 
These  functions  it  would  exercise  even  more  freely  and 
satisfactorily  under  democratic  control  in  times  of 
peace. 


i4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  fact  that  as  between  the  democratic  powers, 
the  League  of  Nations  is  a  going  concern  answers 
finally  and  completely  the  question:  "What  sort  of 
League  shall  the  League  of  Nations  be?"  It  obviously 
should  not  be  anything  less  than  now  exists.  Any 
reduction  in  the  scope  and  power  of  existing  inter- 
national organization  would  be  an  irrecoverable  step 
backward.  The  only  thing  that  should  be  done  is  to 
extend  its  membership  and  scope  so  that  after  they  are 
vanquished  it  will  include  the  present  enemies  of 
democracy  on  equal  terms  with  its  defenders,  and  to 
give  to  its  instruments  as  democratic  a  sanction  and 
control  as  practicable.  For  this  reason  all  the  minimum 
programs  extant  are  vitiated  by  the  same  initial 
fallacy  —  the  fallacy  of  seeking  to  start  the  League  of 
Nations  from  the  position  it  had  attained  before  the 
war.  Some  regard  the  enterprises  of  the  Hague  and 
look  to  a  world  court  without  any  further  sanctions; 
others  want  to  add  to  an  elaborate  juridical  machinery 
a  military  menace  against  failure  to  use  it.  Both 
ignore  the  fact  that  in  addition  to  what  has  been  won 
for  international  organization  through  the  Hague, 
there  exists  a  large  variety  of  international  agencies 
like  postals  and  telegraph  unions,  the  railway  union, 
the  Danube  Commission,  the  Sugar  Commission,  the 
Sanitary  Union,  and  so  on,  and  that  in  addition  to  these 
there  are  the  enormous  winnings  through  the  war, 
that  great  economic  and  administrative  organization 
involving  the  relations  of  27  actual  belligerents  and 
affecting  all  other  states  exclusive  of  the  Central 
Powers.  All  must  be  added  to  the  Hague  Tribunals 
to  make  the  point  of  departure  for  the  League  of  Na- 
tions. Regardless  of  the  purely  military  organization, 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE        i5 

like  the  Interallied  War  Council,  international  organiza- 
tion includes  the  War  Trades,  Industries,  Food, 
and  Maritime  Transport  Councils,  with  functions  so 
fundamental  and  powers  so  effective  as  actually  to 
have  saved  our  Allies  from  disaster  through  lack  of 
food  and  lack  of  men.  The  proposal  for  a  League  of 
Nations  here  submitted  holds  in  view  the  whole  of 
this  situation. 

To  constitute  the  present  or  some  other  proposal 
embodying  this  situation  as  the  law  of  nations  should 
be  the  first  task  of  the  peace  conference,  and  the 
delegates  thereto  should  be  chosen  and  instructed  for 
this  purpose.  It  must  be  the  first  task  because  the 
basic  principles  governing  the  relations  of  nations  will 
determine  the  settlement  of  the  specific  problems  and 
the  attitude  of  the  negotiating  powers  toward  them. 
It  must  be  the  first  task  because  only  so  can  the  danger 
of  a  separate  peace  at  the  Peace  Conference  be  abso- 
lutely avoided.  A  single,  united  peace  means  a  prior 
agreement  on  peace  terms.  For  these  reasons  a  public 
and  explicit  agreement  among  the  Allies  concerning 
the  terms  of  peace  and  an  absolute  unity  in  the  state- 
ment of  them  is  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  the 
Peace  Conference.  All  the  political  cards  must  be  on 
the  table  if  the  fruits  of  democratic  military  victory  are 
to  be  made  secure.  They  can  be  best  put  on  the  table 
only  by  a  public  discussion  of  and  agreement  upon 
peace  terms  by  democratically  delegated  representa- 
tives of  the  Allies,  at  a  meeting  called  for  the  purpose. 
The  27  states  or  peoples  represented  at  this  meeting 
should  make  the  nucleus  of  the  League  of  Nations. 
Their  delegates  should  also  be  the  delegates  to  the 
Peace  Conference.  They  should,  if  possible,  be  elected 


i6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

by  popular  vote,  after  a  campaign  clarifying  the 
problems  involved  and  the  solutions  offered.  Failing 
that,  they  should  be  elected,  on  the  basis  of  propor- 
tional representation,  by  the  popular  branches  of  the 
legislatures  of  these  states.  This  rule  need  not  neces- 
sarily apply  to  the  delegation  of  the  Central  Powers, 
but  it  should  be  recommended  to  them.  The  terms 
decided  upon  by  the  majority  vote  of  the  delegation 
of  the  democratic  alliance  at  the  Interallied  preliminary 
conferences  should  be  binding  upon  every  member  of 
the  delegation.  Modification  of  them  under  discussion 
should  be  permissible  only  by  a  two  thirds  vote  of  the 
delegation.  Only  so,  once  more,  can  the  agreement 
that  there  shall  be  no  separate  peace  be  truly  kept. 
After  the  organization  of  the  Conference,  the  first  item 
upon  the  Agenda  should  be  the  adoption  of  the  protocol 
for  the  League  of  Nations.  Upon  its  adoption  it 
should  be  referred  for  immediate  ratification  either 
to  the  voters  or  to  the  popular  legislatures  of  the  con- 
ferring states  and  of  such  non-belligerents  and  neutrals 
as  may  ask  for  such  reference.  The  protocol  should 
then  be  considered  the  law  of  the  land  in  each  state 
where  it  is  not  rejected  by  a  majority  of  the  voters  or 
two  thirds  of  the  legislature.  The  government  of 
every  state  in  which  it  is  adopted  should  then  take 
immediate  measures  to  elect  or  otherwise  designate  its 
representatives  to  the  International  Council  and  such 
other  international  agencies  on  which  it  is  entitled  to 
representation.  The  time  and  place  for  the  meeting 
and  organization  of  these  should  be  designated  by  the 
Peace  Conference,  but  the  meeting  should  take  place 
within  not  more  than  two  years  after  the  calling  of  the 
Conference. 


LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS  MUST  BE        17 

The  administration  of  international  affairs  during 
the  interim  should  be  left  to  the  Conference.  This 
should,  by  agreement,  sit  as  a  Provisional  International 
Council  until  relieved.  The  protocol  for  the  League 
of  Nations  should  govern  all  its  negotiations  and 
agreements.  'These  would  cover  the  points  at  issue 
between  the  belligerents,  —  most  particularly  the  status 
of  small  nations,  —  Belgium,  Serbia,  Poland,  Finland, 
Ukrainia,  Lithuania,  Judea,  Arabia,  Armenia,  —  the 
African  colonies  and  the  undeveloped  countries,  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  and  equah'ty  of  economic  oppor- 
tunity, and  the  problems  of  restoration  and  restitution. 
The  Peace  Conference  should  agree  to  continue  in 
office  the  various  international  economic,  sanitary  and 
social  agencies  of  both  belligerent  groups,  created  by 
the  necessities  of  war,  should  coordinate  them  and 
should  assume  their  direction.  The  members  of  these 
agencies,  shipping  boards,  food  boards,  commissions  on 
raw  materials,  and  so  on,  should  have  seats  in  the 
Conference  but  no  votes. 

In  this  way  the  continuity  of  international  organiza- 
tion would  remain  unbroken  and  the  advantages  of 
wartime  cooperation,  made  secure  for  times  of  peace, 
be  turned  into  a  guarantee  of  peace  itself. 


II 

PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 


protocol  for  a  League  of  Nations  which  here 
follows  takes  as  its  starting-point  the  principles 
set  forth  and  implied  in  the  various  statements  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  on  the  terms  of  peace. 
It  seeks  to  express  the  common  denominator  of  those, 
and  to  designate  the  unity  of  law  under  which  alone 
they  can  be  guaranteed.  To  it  this  adds  a  considera- 
tion of  already  existing  international  machinery  —  the 
various  commissions,  congresses  and  unions  which  were 
in  operation  before  the  war;  the  Court  at  the  Hague; 
and  the  boards,  commissions  and  agencies  established 
in  the  course  of  conducting  the  war.  These  it  seeks 
to  fuse  into  an  organization,  with  legislative  and  ad- 
ministrative and  judicial  functions,  with  adequate 
sanctions,  operating  under  law,  and  subject  to  the  most 
democratic  control  possible. 

Between  the  protocol  and  a  minimum  program  such 
as  that  of  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace  there  are  any 
number  of  stopping  points.  It  represents  the  logical 
ultimate  of  the  combination  of  Inter-  Allied  peace-terms 
and  the  existing  international  organization. 

I.    PURPOSES   OF  A   LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS 

(a)  To  assure  to  its  members  and  their  peoples 
security,  freedom,  equality  of  economic  and  cultural 
opportunity  and  thereby  to  maintain  lasting  peace. 

18 


PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  19 

(6)  To  create  and  maintain  whatever  agencies  may 
be  necessary  to  effect  these  ends. 


II.    ELIGIBILITY  TO  MEMBERSHIP  IN  THE  LEAGUE 
OF  NATIONS 

(a)  All  states  shall  be  eligible  to  membership  in  the 
League  of  Nations. 

(6)  Their  voting  power  in  the  International  Council 
of  the  League  shall  be  determined  on  the  following 
bases: 

1.  Organization  —  Political,  Economic. 

2.  Resources  (economic  and  military;  actual 

not  potential). 

3.  Democratic    character    of    governmental 

control  (responsible  government). 

4.  Literacy  of  the  population. 

5.  Size  of  the  population.1 

III.    PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS 
DEFINING   INTERNATIONAL  RELATIONS 

(a)  States  constituting  the  League  of  Nations  shall 
secure  to  all  inhabitants  of  their  respective  territories 

1  These  conditions  would  set  in  the  first  line  of  eligibility  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Russia  (perhaps), 
Japan,  Austria-Hungary;  in  the  second  line,  Brazil,  The  Argentine, 
Belgium,  The  Scandinavian  countries,  Holland;  hi  the  third  line  China, 
Portugal,  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  Rumania,  Spain;  in  the  fourth  line  the 
other  central  and  South  American  republics,  Turkey,  Persia,  etc. 

If,  as  it  is  hoped,  the  League  will  grow  out  of  the  peace  conference 
through  the  pooling  and  expanding  of  the  deliberative  and  administra- 
tive war  organization  of  the  belligerent  alliances,  excepting  the  military 
organization,  it  would  start  with  the  following  —  Austria,  France, 
Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  Japan,  Russia,  United  States,  Albania, 
Belgium,  Brazil,  Bulgaria,  China,  Cuba,  Greece,  Haiti,  Liberia,  Mon- 
tenegro, Portugal,  Panama,  Rumania,  San  Marino,  Serbia,  Siam, 
Turkey. 


20  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

their  civil,  religious  and  cultural  rights,  regardless  of 
race,  creed,  or  nationality. 

(6)  Constituent  states  shall  form  no  alliance  with 
each  other  or  with  any  state  or  states  outside  the 
League,  without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the 
International  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

(c)  No  constituent  state  shall  do  anything  to  impair 
the  security  or  the  political  or  economic  freedom  of  any 
other  constituent  state  or  people. 

(d)  All  constituent  states  and  peoples  shall  have 
equal  rights  before  the  law  of  nations. 

(e)  International  law  shall  be  paramount  law  in  each 
constituent  state  in  all  matters  affecting  international 
relations;    contrary  legislation  by  constituent  states 
shall  be  null. 

(/)  All  treaties,  constitutions  and  legislation  con- 
trary to  these  principles  shall  be  null. 

(g)'  Any  constituent  state  may  withdraw  from  the 
League  of  Nations  if  withdrawal  is  voted  by  two  thirds 
of  the  voters  in  the  state.  The  ballot  for  withdrawal 
shall  be  supervised  by  an  election  commission  of  the 
League  appointed  for  that  purpose. 

IV.  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE  OF 
NATIONS 

A.   The  International  Council. 

1.  The  supreme  organ  of  the  League  of  Nations 
shall  be  an  International  Council. 

2.  Each  constituent  state  of  the  League  shall  be 
entitled  to  as  many  representatives  in  the  council  as  it 
has  votes,  one  representative  counting  for  one  vote.  ' 

3.  (a)   National  representatives  to  the  International 
Council  shall  be  elected  by  popular  vote,  on  the  basis  of 


PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  21 

proportional  representation,  from  twice  the  number 
of  candidates  to  be  elected. 

(6)  The  candidates  to  be  elected  shall  be  nominated 
on  two  thirds  vote  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  legislature 
of  each  constituent  state. 

(c)  Elections  shall  be  conducted  by  the  respective 
states,  except  where  conditions  of  fairness  and  justice 
may  make  it  necessary  to  put  them  under  the  super- 
vision of  an  International  Elections  Commission. 

(d)  Representatives  shall  serve  for  a  term  of  three 
years. 

4.  (a)  The  International  Council  or  its  agents  shall 
be  endowed  with  whatever  powers  are  necessary  to 
carry  out  the  aims  of  the  League,  subject  only  to  the 
following  limitations: 

i.  It  shall  pass  no  general  law  limiting  the  political 
independence,  the  territorial  integrity,  or  equality 
of  economic  opportunity  of  any  member  of  the 
League. 

ii.  It  shall  pass  no  general  law  in  any  way  limit- 
ing the  cultural,  religious,  economic,  or  civil  freedom 
of  racial  minorities  within  the  constituent  states  of 
the  League. 

iii.  International  legislation  may  be  initiated  by 
the  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  popular  legislature  of 
any  state. 

iv.  International  referendum  to  such  state  legisla- 
tures or  to  the  peoples  of  such  states  may  be  ordered 
by  one  third  the  voting  power  in  the  International 
Council. 

(b)  The  International  Council  or  its  duly  delegated 
representatives  alone  shall  have  power  to  wage  war, 


22  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

to  permit  war  to  be  waged  or  to  punish  international 
offenders  by  various  degrees  of  non-intercourse,  excom- 
munication or  interdict  such  as  embargos,  the  prohibi- 
tion of  loans,  of  the  payment  of  debts,  of  trading  in 
securities,  of  communications,  of  imports  or  exports  or 
both,  of  harborage,  etc. 

(c)  The  International  Council  shall  have  power  to 
require  the  constituent  states  of  the  League  of  Nations 
to  furnish  the  military  and  naval  complements  to 
enforce  its  decrees,  if  necessary. 

B.   The  International  Commissions. 

i.  To  carry  out  common  international  enterprises, 
to  effect  security,  freedom  and  equality  of  economic 
and  cultural  opportunity  among  the  states  of  the 
League  and  their  peoples,  to  safeguard  the  rights  and 
freedom  of  weak  or  undeveloped  nations  and  races, 
the  International  Council  shall  delegate  its  powers  to 
the  following  International  Commissions: 

(a)  The  International  Commission  on  Armaments. 

(b)  The  Commission  on  International  Commerce  with 
the  following  sub-commissions  on  — 

1.  Raw  Materials  6.   Communications 

2.  Food  (a)  post  (b)   cables 

3.  Waterways  (c)   telephones 

4.  Highways  (d)  wireless 

5.  Airways  7.  Shipping 

(c)  The  International  Commission  on  Central  Africa 

(d)  The  Commission  on  International  Finance  with 
two  sub-commissions  on  — 

1.  The  International  Stabilization  of  Credit 

2.  Political  Loans  and  Investments 

,    (e)   The  International  Commission  on  Education 


PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  28 

(/)    The  Commission  on  Undeveloped  Countries 
(g)    The  Commission  on  International  Hygiene 
(h)    The  International  Commission  on  Labor. 

2.  (a)   The  members  of  these  commissions  shall  be 
elected  by  the  International  Council  from  twice  the 
number   nominated   by   the   popular   branch   of  the 
Legislature  in  each  constituent  state,  the  number  from 
any  state  to  be  determined  by  the  International  Council 
in  the  same  way  as  the  voting  power  of  the  state  in 
the  International  Council; 

(b)  International  Commissioners  shall  serve  for  a 
term  of  four  years.1 

3.  (a)  Appeals  may  be  taken  from  the  decisions  of 
the  International  Commissions  first  to  the  International 
Court,  and  thence  to  the  International  Council. 

(6)  The  matters  subject  to  appeal  shall  be  defined 
by  the  Council. 

C.   The  Ministry  of  the  International  Council.  — 

i.  (a)  The  presiding  officer  of  the  International 
Council,  together  with  the  presiding  officers  of  the 

1  Most  of  the  functions  here  designated  are  already  being  served  by 
various  governmental  or  private  international  agencies.  Before  the 
war  there  were  such  agencies  as  the  Danube  Commission,  the  Inter- 
national Postals  and  Telegraph  Unions,  the  International  Institute  of 
Agriculture,  and  so  on,  which  would  be  simply  taken  over  by  the  ap- 
propriate commissions.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  there  has  grown 
up,  practically,  among  the  Allies,  an  International  Food  Commission, 
and  in  the  extension  and  development  of  correlation  of  the  various  muni- 
tions ministries,  etc.,  with  the  American  War  Industries  Board  and  War 
Trade  Board,  there  exists  what  is  in  essence  identical  with  the  proposed 
International  Commerce  Commission.  The  Inter-Allied  War  Council 
is  a  secretive  and  more  or  less  undemocratic  beginning  of  the  Inter- 
national Council.  The  tasks  and  operations  of  these  agencies  will 
have  to  go  on  after  the  war,  anyhow.  What  is  here  proposed  is  to 
expand  them,  integrate  them  and  democratize  their  control.  Very 
little  is  necessary  to  turn  them  into  a  real  League  of  Nations. 


24  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

International  Commissions  and  sub-commissions  and 
of  the  International  Court,  shall  compose  the  Ministry 
of  the  International  Council. 

(6)  The  presiding  officer  of  the  International  Council 
shall  also  be  the  presiding  officer  of  its  Ministry. 

2.  The  Ministry  shall  be  charged  with  such  executive 
powers  as  may  be  delegated  to  them  by  the  Interna- 
tional Council. 

D.   The  International  Court. 

1.  An  International  Court  shall  be  established  with 
jurisdiction  over  all  disputes  between  members  of  the 
League  or  between  governments  and  peoples  or  other 
organizations  within  any  state  in  the  League. 

2.  All  disputes  among  the  constituent  states  of  the 
League  or  any  groups  therein  shall  be  held  justiciable. 

3.  Non-members  of  the  League  shall  be  free  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  services  of  the  court  on  the 
same   terms   as   members.    Disputes   designated   by 
them  as  non-justiciable  may  be  referred  for  settlement 
to  the  International  Council  or  to  agencies  of  concilia- 
tion created  by  it  for  the  purpose. 

A.  (a)  The  number  of  Judges  of  the  International 
Court  shall  be  25.  They  shall  be  elected  by  the 
International  Council  from  nominations  submitted  by 
the  popular  branches  of  the  Legislatures  in  the  respec- 
tive state  of  the  League. 

(6)   They  shall  serve  for  a  term  of  7  years. 

5.  The  rules  prescribing  the  organization  of  the 
Court  shall  be  drawn  by  the  International  Council. 
The  Court  shall  elect  its  own  officers. 

6.  Appeals  from  the  decision  of  the  International 
Court  or  any  of  its  branches  may  be  taken  to  the 


PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  25 

International   Council,   which   shall   determine   what 
matters  coming  before  the  court  are  open  to  appeal. 

V.    THE   COMPENSATION   OF  INTERNATIONAL 
OFFICERS 

The  International  Council  shall  have  power  to  fix 
and  to  pay  the  salaries  of  its  own  members,  of  the 
judges  of  the  International  Court,  of  the  members  of 
the  International  Commissions,  their  agents  and 
subordinates,  and  of  all  other  officers  and  servants  of 
the  League  of  Nations. 

VI.    RELATIONS   OF   INTERNATIONAL   OFFICERS   TO  CON- 
STITUENT  STATES   AND   TO   THE   LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

1.  No  officer  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall  hold 
any  national  office,  political,  military,  social,  or  civil, 
while  in  the  service  of  the  League. 

2.  No  officer  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall,  while  in 
the  service  of  the  League,  or  for  five  years  thereafter, 
accept  any  title,  honor,  emolument,  or  other  mark  of 
distinction  or  favor  from  the  government  or  people  of 
any  state,  whether  in  the  League  or  not. 

3.  Negligence  of  public  duty  shall  be  ground  for 
the  impeachment  and  removal  of  international  officers. 
The  accused  shall  have  a  fair  trial  before  the  Inter- 
national Council  and  two  thirds  of  the  vote  of  the 
whole  Council  shall  be  necessary  for  impeachment. 

VII.    THE   ENFORCEMENT   OF  INTERNATIONAL 
DECREES 

A.  Except  in  cases  where  appeals  may  be  taken  or 
a  referendum  is  called  for,  failure  to  carry  out  the 
decrees  of  the  International  Council,  its  commissions 


26  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

or  its  courts,  shall  be  regarded  as  a  declaration  of  war 
upon  the  League. 

B.  The   economic   and   military   resources   of  the 
constituent  states  of  the  League  shall  be  at  the  disposal 
of  the  International  Council  for  the  enforcement  of 
its  decrees  or  those  of  the  International  Commissions 
and  Court. 

C.  Decrees   may   be   enforced   or    their   violation 
punished  by  any  action  within  the  competency  of  the 
International  Council,  Commissions  or  Court. 

VIII.    THE  REVENUES   OF  THE  LEAGUE   OF   NATIONS 

A.  The  International  Budget: 

i.  The  International  Council  shall  prepare  annually 
a  budget  on  the  basis  of  the  costs  and  charges  of  all 
international  agencies  under  its  governance. 

B.  Levies,  Fees,  Tolls  and  Taxes. 

1.  The  budget  may  be  raised  by  levies  on  the  con- 
stituent states  of  the  League,  the  levies  to  be  propor- 
tional to  the  voting  power  of  the  States,  and 

2.  By  fees,  tolls  and  taxes  on  the  use  of  international 
ways  and  other  international  organs  and  instruments. 

IX.    PUBLICITY 

A.  The  sittings  of  the  International  Council,  the 
International  Courts,  the  International  Commissions 
and  of  all  bodies  created  or  delegated  by  these  shall  be 
public  and  open. 

B.  The   International   Council,    Commissions   and 
Courts  and  all  their  agents  shall  keep  complete  records 
of  their  proceedings.    These  records  shall  at  all  times 
be  open  to  public  scrutiny  and  examination. 


PROTOCOL  FOR  A  LEAGUE  27 

X.    AMENDMENT   OF  THE   INTERNATIONAL  CODE 

A.  Amendment  of  the  International  Code  may  be 
made  by  two  thirds  the  voting  power  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

B.  Amendments  may  be  passed  only  by  popular 
vote.    The  votes   of  each  constituent  state  of  the 
League  shall  be  counted  for  or  against  the  amendment 
in  accord  with  the  majority  vote  of  the  citizens  of  the 
state. 


Ill 

THE  ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL 
FOR  A  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

I.  The  purpose  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall  be 
(i)  to  assure  to  Us  members  and  their  peoples  security, 
freedom,  equality  of  economic  and  of  cultural  opportunity, 
and  to  maintain  lasting  peace.  (2)  To  create  and  main- 
tain whatever  agencies  may  effect  these  ends. 

THE  League  of  Nations  aims  to  attain  for  each 
nation  what  each  nation  aims  to  attain  for  itself. 
Its  novelty  is  not  in  purpose,  but  in  methods  and 
means.  The  older  method  has  been  that  of  inde- 
pendent and  absolute  sovereignty  for  each  state, 
the  peer  of,  and  arrayed  against,  the  independent  and 
absolute  sovereignty  of  every  other  state.  Its  means 
have  been  costly  rivalries  in  armament  and  trade. 
Each  nation  has  sought  not  only  to  strengthen  itself, 
but  to  weaken  its  fellows.  It  has  assumed  that  the 
peace  necessary  to  success  and  prosperity  could  be 
maintained  only  by  increasing  preparation  for  actual 
war,  and  by  the  constant  conduct  of  commercial  and 
financial  war.  Acting  on  this  assumption  has  been 
expensive,  wasteful,  disastrous  to  human  life  and 
freedom.  The  League  of  Nations  here  proposed  is  a 
method  of  acting  which  has  other  assumptions.  It 
pays  due  and  close  regard  to  the  sovereignties  of  states, 
but  also  consciously  acknowledges  and  seeks  con- 
sciously the  control,  by  all  peoples  for  the  good  of  all 

28 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        29 

peoples,  of  the  economic  powers  that  make  states  and 
peoples  independent,  and  that  have  heretofore  been 
used  to  exploit  weak  peoples  and  to  weaken  strong 
ones,  the  chief  beneficiaries  of  this  use  of  the  wealth 
and  power  of  nations  being  a  few  international  finan- 
ciers. The  rivalries  of  these  have  conscripted  and 
betrayed  for  their  own  ends  the  sentiment,  the  honor 
and  the  hopes  of  mankind.  They  have  brought  on 
the  war  we  are  now  fighting,  than  which  the  world  has 
never  known  a  greater.  Its  necessities  have  divided 
mankind  into  two  camps,  and  have  forced  upon  each 
camp  a  cooperative  organization  of  overwhelming 
significance  for  the  future  of  mankind.  The  organiza- 
tion of  the  central  powers  is  imperialistic.  It  rests 
upon  the  domination  of  German  power  and  German 
leadership  in  the  affairs  of  Austria,  Turkey,  and 
Bulgaria  as  well  as  of  Germany.  The  organization  of 
the  Entente  is  democratic.  It  rested  in  the  beginning 
upon  the  mutual  concessions  and  compromises  of  the 
democratic  powers,  jealous  of  their  respective  sover- 
eignties. The  exigencies  of  war  have  been  forcing  the 
pooling  of  these  sovereignties  in  the  common  enterprise. 
They  have  established  unity  of  command  on  the  battle- 
front  and  unity  of  operation  behind,  among  the  states. 
They  have  forced  the  substitution  of  cooperation  for 
compromise  and  organization  for  concession.  They 
have  challenged  and  abolished  in  many  respects  the 
antiquated  traditions  of  government.  They  have 
forced  the  internal  reorganization  of  the  state,  in 
some  places,  as  in  America,  heightening  its  power,  in 
others,  as  in  England,  immensely  opening  the  field  of 
opportunity  and  freedom  for  the  masses  of  men. 
Everywhere,  among  the  powers  of  the  Entente,  they 


3o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

have  forced  the  challenge  of,  and  in  many  they  have 
shaken,  tradition  and  privilege.  The  life  and  creative 
power  of  peoples  have  been  enhanced. 

The  League  of  Nations  here  proposed  is  designed  to 
make  permanent  and  available  for  purposes  of  peace 
at  least  the  international  economic  organization  which 
the  democratic  powers  have  created  for  the  purposes 
of  the  war.  It  is  designed  to  democratize  their  control 
and  operation  and  to  make  and  to  keep  it  responsible. 
It  is  designed  to  acknowledge  and  to  express  in  the 
open  forms  of  public  international  organization  and 
democratic  international  control  the  already  largely 
internationalized  private  control  of  basic  raw  materials 
and  of  finance.  Oil,  iron  ore  and  other  metals;  rubber, 
wool,  cotton,  had  before  the  war  been  privately,  and 
are  now  publicly,  controlled  and  distributed  by  inter- 
national agreement.  Money  has  long  been  under  a 
private  international  control  which  is  now  under  some 
public  constraint,  for  the  public  good.  The  League  of 
Nations  is  a  device  by  which  the  public  good  shall 
continue  to  be  so  served,  openly,  freely,  and  under 
democratic  conditions. 

II.  All  states  shall  be  eligible  to  membership  in  the 
League  of  Nations  on  the  following  conditions:  their 
voting  power  in  the  International  Council  of  the  League 
shall  be  determined  on  the  following  bases —  (i)  organiza- 
tion, political  and  economic;  (2)  resources,  economic  and 
military  —  actual,  not  potential;  (3)  democracy  and 
responsibility  of  government;  (4)  literacy  of  the  population; 
(5)  size  of  the  population. 

That  states  are  not  equal  in  wealth,  power,  organiza- 
tion and  civilization  has  seemed  to  many  the  most 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       3i 

important  reason  for  levelling  them  in  the  international 
organization.  One  state,  one  vote,  it  was  agreed,  is  as 
imperative  a  rule  for  international  democracy  as  one 
man,  one  vote,  is  for  national  democracy.  Caste- 
voting  among  states  is  as  dangerous  to  the  small  state 
as  caste- voting  in  Prussia  is  to  the  working  man.  It 
would  mean  the  permanent  disfranchisement  of  the 
small  or  weak  state.  For  a  long  time  such  negligible 
international  organization  as  the  Hague  Conference 
achieved  was  held  up  by  these  considerations.  The 
South  American  republics  stood  out  for  the  principle 
one  state,  one  vote,  and  as  unanimity  was  a  prerequisite 
for  organization  or  action,  they  prevented  anything 
from  getting  done.  A  sort  of  agreement  was  finally 
reached  by  which  Austria-Hungary,  the  British  Empire, 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  Japan,  Russia,  the  United 
States  were  on  the  Fabian  scale  to  have  20  votes  each; 
Spam  was  to  have  12  votes;  the  Netherlands  9; 
Belgium,  Denmark,  Greece,  Norway,  Portugal,  Sweden, 
China,  Rumania,  Turkey,  6;  Argentine,  Brazil,  Chile, 
Mexico,  4;  Switzerland,  Bulgaria,  Persia,  3;  Colombia, 
Peru,  Uruguay,  Venezuela,  Serbia,  Siam,  2;  and  the 
other  constituent  states,  i  each.  No  reasonable  basis 
for  the  apportionment  is  evident;  such  factors  as 
prestige,  fear,  as  well  as  the  real  factors  of  organization, 
resources,  literacy,  counted  in  it,  and  counted  too 
much.  If  the  Peace  Conference  determines  upon  a 
real  League  of  Nations  at  all,  it  will  also  have  to 
determine  the  relative  weight  of  the  states  in  the 
League.  For  this,  the  Hague  precedent  is  inadequate 
•and  unsatisfactory  and  the  one  state,  one  vote  notion 
is  impossible.  It  rests  upon  a  false  analogy  with  the 
individual.  An  individual  is  an  indivisible  entity,  an 


32  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

organism.  When  he  votes  he  votes  himself  as  a 
whole.  He  cannot  be  altered  or  destroyed  without 
being  altered  or  destroyed  as  a  whole.  A  state  is 
only  an  organization.  It  can  be  changed  in  its  own 
nature  without  any  change  in  the  nature  of  its  citizens. 
Its  vote  must  represent  their  variable  diversity,  not 
its  unity;  must  represent,  that  is,  what  they  have 
done  with  themselves  and  their  resources  and  how 
freely  they  have  done  it.  For  that  is  what  measures 
the  potency  of  any  state. 

The  operations  of  states  in  the  present  war  are  a 
very  vivid  exemplification  of  this  fact.  International 
organization  has  come  into  existence  because  of 
them,  and  its  continuance  after  the  war  depends  on 
them.  At  least  the  English-speaking  peoples  and 
the  French  are  determined  upon  its  continuance  and 
those  powers  that  choose  not  to  participate  in  it  are, 
of  course,  free  in  their  choice,  but  they  must  not  ex- 
pect, either,  to  receive  the  economic  and  military  ad- 
vantages of  participation.  Those  who  do  go  in  must 
be  content  to  have  their  voting  power  determined 
upon  a  basis  as  unarbitrary  as  the  facts  permit. 
This  basis,  broadly  speaking,  must  be  a  measure 
of  the  real  power  of  a  people  to  wage  effective  and 
victorious  war.  It  does  not  lie  in  armaments,  and 
it  does  not  lie  in  population.  China  and  Russia 
have  population,  Austria  had  armament;  England  and 
the  United  States  were  without.  Yet  from  the  very 
outset  Austria  has  failed  to  wage  effective  war,  while 
the  United  States  and  England  have  accomplished 
what  seem  to  be  miracles  both  in  arming  and  in  fight- 
ing, in  astoundingly  short  time.  Their  miracles  were 
due  to  their  resources,  their  organization,  and  to  the 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        33 

unity  of  the  free  national  will,  that  is,  to  the  voluntary 
assent  of  the  great  bulk  of  their  populations  to  the 
war,  and  to  the  consequentl^ree  cooperation  of  the 
citizenship  in  the  military^Jperprise.  Now  for  all 
these  things  there  exist  some  definite,  attainable 
measures,  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  records 
and  political  organization  of  states.  These  permit  the 
ranging  of  states  in  an  ordinal  series,  between  maximum 
and  minimum  limits,  on  each  of  the  points  counted. 
Values  exceeding  or  falling  below  these  limits,  which 
the  Peace  Conference  should  determine,  should  count 
for  nothing. 

Thus,  it  might  be  ruled  that  a  state  doing  a  business 
of  ten  billion  dollars  a  year  or  over  should  have  the 
maximum  number  of  votes  on  the  score  of  resources, 
and  that  states  doing  a  business  of  only  ten  million 
dollars  a  year  should  have  the  minimum.  And  so 
with  the  other  points.  States  falling  below  the  mini- 
mum in  all  points  might  be  excluded  altogether  from 
voting  or  allowed  only  one  vote. 

Suppose  that  we  fix  the  maximum  number  of  votes 
which  a  state  might  have,  arbitrarily,  at  fifty.  The 
state  would  then  have  fifty  representatives  in  the  Inter- 
national Council.  It  should  have  fifty  representatives 
and  not  one  representative  casting  fifty  votes  because 
there  is  the  greater  certainty  so  that  the  representation 
will  be  a  representation  of  peoples  and  not  of  powers 
or  governments,  that  minorities  will  be  represented, 
and  that  other  classifications  than  merely  national 
ones  will  apply  to  the  membership  of  the  Council - 
classifications  such  as  Radical  and  Conservative  for 
example,  or  Tory  and  Socialist.  Suppose  then  that 
the  maximum  number  of  representatives  a  state  may 


34 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 


have  is  fifty.  Suppose  that  the  fifty  were  divided  as 
follows:  for  actual,  available  resources  (that  is  for 
industrial  activity  in  esse^o',  for  political  and  economic 
organization,  10;  for  fifl^id  responsible  government, 
10.  The  literacy  of  a^^pulation  is  an  undoubted 
factor  in  the  reality  of  the  first  three  items,  but  no 
counterbalance  to  them.  Let  it  be  worth  5  repre- 
sentatives, and  the  remaining  5  be  awarded  for  the 
brute  force  of  the  population  itself.  We  might  then 
get  a  tentative  table  of  the  voting  power  of  the  states 
on  the  basis  of  their  industrial  and  political  organiza- 
tion, their  resources,  their  literacy,  their  population 
which  the  subjoined  tables  might  remotely  approxi- 
mate. 


U.   S. 

British 
Empire 

France 

Germany 

Italy 

Japan 

Organization 

10 

10 

10 

10 

6 

9 

Resources   .  . 

20 

20 

10 

10 

4 

10 

Democracy  .  . 

9 

8 

9 

5 

8 

2 

Literacy 

2 

2 

5 

5 

i 

0 

Population    . 

5 

5 

3 

4 

2 

2 

Totals    .  .  . 

46 

45 

36 

34 

21 

23 

Russia 

Austria- 
Hungary 

Brazil 

Argen- 
tine 

Bel- 
gium 

Switzer- 
land 

China 

Organization 

0 

3 

5 

6 

10 

10 

i 

Resources  .  . 

5 

8 

8 

10 

4 

3 

i 

Democracy  . 

10 

3 

7 

7 

8 

10 

3 

Literacy  .... 

0 

i 

0 

i 

3 

5 

0 

Population  . 

5 

3 

i 

i 

i 

i 

5 

Totals  .... 

20 

18 

21 

26 

26 

29 

12 

The  tables  are  not  intended  as  an  actual  valuation 
of  the  various  states  they  appraise.  They  are  intended 
to  show  how  the  values  of  states  with  regard  to  each 
other  could  be  determined.  A  state  like  Switzerland 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       35 

has  a  negligible  material  power  to  make  war.  Its 
absolute  value  is  certainly  not  more  than  half  that  of 
the  United  States,  yet  its  pl^g  in  an  ordinal  series 
might  easily  be  halfway  bed|  •the  highest  and  the 
lowest.  Its  spiritual  excel^n^e-— its  democracy  and 
its  literacy  and  its  organization,  are  brought,  as  in 
no  other  way,  into  play  in  the  international  organiza- 
tion. They  help  throw  the  balance  of  power  in  the 
direction  of  these  imponderable  factors.  The  whole 
arrangement  would  be  such  as  to  put  a  premium  upon 
organization,  democracy  and  literacy.  A  state's 
progress  would  be  marked,  up  to  a  certain  point  at 
least,  by  the  number  of  men  that  represented  it  in  the 
International  Council.  Its  moral  decline  would  be 
similarly  registered.  No  state  could  be  preponderant 
merely  because  of  its  resources  and  its  population. 
To  give  these  weight  in  the  family  of  nations  each  state 
would  press  in  the  direction  of  organization,  democracy, 
and  literacy.  The  international  premium  would  be 
on  these,  and  China  would  have  a  chance  equally  with 
England,  Turkey  with  Germany,  and  Russia  with  the 
United  States.  A  reapportionment  every  five  or  ten 
years  would  serve  to  show  the  progress  made  or  the 
decline  undergone.  This  reapportionment  would  natu- 
rally be  made  by  experts  under  the  rules  and  subject 
to  the  revision  of  the  International  Council.  Publicity 
will  keep  the  process  from  being  manipulated  to  the 
advantage  or  disadvantage  of  any  particular  state. 

III.     PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS  DEFINING 
INTERNATIONAL  RELATIONS 

(a)   States  constituting  the  League  of  Nations  agree 
to  secure  to  all  inhabitants  of  their  respective  territories, 


36  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

their  civil,  religious  and  cultural  rights,  regardless  of 
race,  creed,  or  nationality. 

(b)  States  constitutiru^ie  League  of  Nations  agree  to 
form  no  alliance  withT^jj^ther  nor  with  any  state  or 
states  outside  the  League,   without  the  consent  of  the 
International  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

(c)  No  state,  a  member  of  the  League  of  Nations,  shall 
do  anything  to  impair  the  security  or  the  political  or 
economic  freedom  of  any  other  state  or  people  in  the 
League  of  Nations. 

(d)  All  states  and  peoples  in  the  League  shall  have 
equal  rights  before  the  law  of  nations. 

(e)  International  law  shall  be  the  law  of  the  land  in 
all  matters  affecting   international  relations.     Contrary 
legislation  by  constituent  states  shall  be  null  and  void. 

(f)  All  treaties,  etc.,  contrary  to  these  principles  shall 
be  null  and  void. 

(g)  Any   constituent   state   may  withdraw  from   the 
League  of  Nations  if  withdrawal  is  voted  by  two  thirds  of 
the  voters  in  the  state.     The  ballot  for  withdrawal  shall 
be  supervised  by  an  election  commission  of  the  League 
appointed  for  that  purpose. 

The  seven  propositions  set  forth  under  this  head  are 
designed  to  protect  that  type  of  right,  quarrels  about 
which  have  not  infrequently  developed  into  wars.  Af- 
firmatively they  are  designed  to  secure  the  religious  and 
cultural  liberty  of  individuals  and  of  groups,  equality 
of  economic  opportunity  for  all  states  and  peoples, 
and  freedom  for  lawful  changes  in  the  relations  between 
states  and  between  groups  within  states. 

The  first  clause  is  designed  to  obviate  the  procedure 
and  precedent  established  by  Lord  Palmerston  when 
he  declared  that  the  British  government  would  protect 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       87 

the  lives  and  property  of  British  subjects  all  the  world 
over,  absolutely.  He  acted  on  this  declaration  for 
the  first  time  when  a  Portuguese  Jew  who  had  become 
a  British  subject  made  a  claim  against  the  Greek 
government,  for  the  satisfaction  of  which,  the  Greeks 
having  failed  to  come  to  terms,  he  appealed  to  his 
home  government.  Palmerston  immediately  dis- 
patched ships  to  Greece,  and  thereby  began  a  policy 
of  which  the  fruits  were  the  English  bombardment  of 
Alexandria,  the  French  of  Casablanca,  the  international 
intervention  in  China  during  the  Boxer  rebellion,  the 
American  intervention  in  Mexico,  and  so  on.  Once  it 
is  clear  that  an  aggrieved  person  may,  on  whatever 
count,  appeal  to  international  law,  either  in  his  own 
person  or  through  his  government,  difficulties  of  this 
order,  and  of  the  order  of  religious  or  racial  persecution 
such  as  were  frequent  in  Russia  and  Rumania,  begin 
automatically  to  disappear,  and  in  any  event,  their 
consequences  are  rendered  impossible. 

The  second  and  third  clauses  belong  together.  Their 
intention  is,  to  prevent  the  danger  to  the  unity  of  the 
League  which  might  obviously  come  from  machinations 
of  members  of  the  League  against  each  other  or  from 
secret  alliances  of  powers  within  the  League.  Diplo- 
matic history  is  full  of  examples  of  the  international 
upheavals  arising  from  such  a  situation  —  the  most 
conspicuous  just  now  being  the  relation  of  Italy  to 
both  the  Entente  and  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the 
relation  of  Bulgaria  to  the  Balkan  League  and  the 
Central  powers.  Unity  is  an  indispensable  condition 
for  the  success  of  the  League  of  Nations  and  its  im- 
perativeness must  be  written  into  basic  law.  Once 
written  into  basic  law,  a  preventive  influence  against 


38  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

such  action  comes  into  operation,  and  there  is  an 
opportunity  for  legal  redress  before  military  measures 
need  be  taken. 

The  next  three  clauses  have  the  same  essential 
purpose  —  to  establish  the  paramountcy  of  the  law  of 
the  League  in  international  relations  and  to  guarantee, 
with  all  the  power  of  the  League,  justice  to  each  and 
all  of  its  members.  At  the  Hague  tribunal  and  con- 
ferences the  distrust  of  large  nations  by  small  ones  has 
had  much  to  do  with  the  failure  of  the  Hague  enterprise 
to  develop  into  anything  effective.  International  law 
must  be  the  same  law  for  both  large  and  small  states, 
as  national  law  is  the  same  for  rich  men  and  poor,  and 
the  more  completely  this  law  has  behind  it  the  economic 
and  military  power  of  all  the  states  in  the  League,  the 
surer  it  is  to  be  the  same  for  each.  To  secure  this  end, 
the  law  of  nations  which  is  created  by  an  international 
council  must  have  complete  priority  over  all  earlier 
treaties,  rules  and  practices  and  its  mere  existence 
must  nullify  any  other  rule  or  agreement  affecting 
international  relations.  The  more  this  is  so,  the 
more  certainly  it  becomes  the  interest  of  each  state  to 
defend  international  law  against  infraction.  The  law 
becomes  automatically  self-enforcing,  securing  to  states 
the  real  benefits  of  both  sovereignty  and  independence. 

Ideals  of  sovereignty  are  peculiarly  intimate  and 
persistent.  Their  strongest  advocates  are  invariably 
members  of  the  propertied  classes,  and  sovereignty  is 
only  the  political  aspect  of  the  assumed  inviolability 
of  private  property.  It  looks  back  to  the  time  when 
a  state  was  merely  an  estate  and  belonged  to  a  land- 
lord, a  sovereign.  When  the  individual  lord  lost  his- 
sovereignty  to  a  class  or  to  a  whole  people,  its  rights 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        3g 

and  privileges  passed  over  with  it,  and  the  idea  of  the 
sacrosanctity  of  the  territory  and  affairs  of  a  "sov- 
ereign" nation  became  an  underlying  postulate  of 
international  relations,  effective  at  least  as  between 
strong  states.  Prior  to  the  industrial  revolution  the 
postulate  was  workable  because  the  simple  economy 
of  life  without  machinery  made  the  self-sufficiency  of 
a  state  an  easy  and  actual  thing.  The  industrial 
revolution  destroyed  this  self-sufficiency.  It  created 
economic  interdependence.  It  did  not,  however,  at  the 
same  time  alter  political  relations.  Those  remained 
unchanged.  The  consequence  was  a  growing  strain 
between  the  political  forms  of  states  and  the  activities 
and  enterprises  of  their  citizens.  The  machinery  of 
government  had  perforce  to  become  accessory  to  the 
operations  of  commerce  if  the  old  notion  of  sovereignty 
was  to  remain  workable,  or  the  state  to  retain  its  old 
forms  and  ideals.  That  is,  states  had  to  seek  economic 
"self-sufficiency."  And  self-sufficiency  is  an  ideal 
which  the  war  has  thrown  openly  into  the  foreground 
of  the  political  ideals  of  reactionaries.  Actually, 
economic  self-sufficiency  means  nothing  more  or  less 
than  financial  imperialism.  For  a  state  can  in  modern 
times  be  sovereign  and  self-sufficient  only  at  the 
expense  of  the  sovereignty  and  self-sufficiency  of  other 
states.  It  must  dominate  and  rule  them,  must  be 
able  to  use  their  properties  and  citizens  for  its  own 
purposes.  This  is  the  inevitable  implication  of  the 
economic  interdependence  of  the  industrial  world. 
It  underlies  the  chance-built  empire  of  England  and 
the  expansion  of  France.  Germany,  reading  the 
results  of  historic  chance  as  conscious  purpose,  set 
herself  such  an  empire  as  a  goal,  with  the  results  that 


4o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

we  know.  The  economic  interdependence  of  the  world 
is  compelling  a  change  of  political  organization,  for 
political  organization  registers  economic  forces.  These 
press  irresistibly  toward  some  kind  of  political  unifica- 
tion of  the  world.  The  tradition  of  sovereignty  and 
the  shibboleths  of  the  past  demand  empire,  for  in 
empire  alone  can  the  self-sufficiency  necessary  to 
sovereignty  be  made  actual.  The  alternative  to 
empire,  and  the  sole  alternative,  is  the  League  of 
Nations  in  which  sovereignty  can  be  retained  by  a 
voluntary  agreement  as  to  its  limitations,  and  the  very 
economic  insufficiency  of  each  state  be  made  a  guarantee 
of  the  freedom  of  its  neighbors  from  aggression  at  its 
hands. 

Yet  even  the  League  of  Nations  carries  with  it  a 
certain  menace  of  oppression  —  the  oppression  of 
minorities  within  states  and  the  oppression  of  states 
within  the  League.  This  menace  is  an  absolute  fact. 
The  only  way  to  escape  it  is  the  way  of  anarchy,  and 
the  upshot  of  anarchy  is  always  tyranny.  What  can 
be  done  is  to  provide  checks  upon  it,  to  compel  it  to 
work  in  the  open,  and  to  formulate  a  rule  under  which 
it  can  be  met.  Minorities  are  protected  by  the  first 
rule,  and  the  League  of  Nations  becomes  by  it  a 
guarantor  of  their  security.  All  the  others  protect 
states  against  each  other,  severally.  They  cannot  of 
course  be  protected  against  the  total  collective  will 
of  their  fellows,  as  there  is  no  appeal  from  that  total 
collective  will  except  to  battle.  All  that  can  be  done 
is  to  provide  for  the  unwilling  state  an  opportunity  to 
withdraw  from  the  League  if  it  so  desires.  The  last 
clause  does  that.  Such  a  withdrawal  is  at  the  same 
time  a  withdrawal  from  the  family  of  nations  and 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       4i 

renders  necessary  a  high  degree  of  popular  assent  to  it, 
whence  the  proviso  that  it  shall  require  two  thirds  of 
the  voters  of  the  state  to  sanction  it. 

There  remains  the  problem  of  the  insurgent.  The 
powers  of  any  effective  League  of  Nations  must  un- 
avoidably be  such  that  insurgency  in  any  state  might 
easily  develop  into  an  infringement  on  them.  Presi- 
dent Cleveland's  action  during  the  Homestead  strikes 
is  an  instance  of  the  complications  that  might  arise; 
nor  would  it  be  possible  for  the  League  to  avoid  them 
by  a  declaration  of  neutrality  or  other  modes  of  proce- 
dure. The  "right  of  revolt, "  or,  as  Locke  calls  it,  "the 
appeal  to  Heaven,  '\  is  always  a  last  resort  against 
oppression  which  men  ought  not  to  be  asked  to  sur- 
render and  should  not  surrender  if  they  were  asked. 
The  League  of  Nations  can  only  designate  lawful  ways 
by  which  the  ends  sought  by  revolution  might  be 
attempted,  and  these  only  in  the  declaration  of  just 
the  principles  assuring  the  rights  of  minorities,  securing 
states  from  unwarranted  interference  by  their  neigh- 
bors or  by  the  League.  Under  these  declarations  the 
Irish  might,  for  example,  enter  suit  in  the  International 
Court  against  England,  the  Poles  against  Austria  or 
Germany,  the  Jews  against  Rumania,  with  some  hope 
of  justice.  They  would  of  course  have  to  submit  to 
the  decisions  of  the  Court  or  of  the  Council,  but  that 
is  likely  to  be  at  least  as  fair  as  the  decision  of  war,  and 
gives  to  minorities,  at  any  rate,  a  considerably  greater 
chance  that  the  decision  will  be  in  their  favor. 


42     THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

IV.  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

A.   The  International  Council. 

1.  The  supreme  organ  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall 
be  an  International  Council. 

2.  Each  constituent  state  of  the  League  shall  be  entitled 
to  as  many  REPRESENTATIVES  in  the  council  as  it  has 
votes,  one  representative  counting  for  one  vote. 

3.  (a)   National  representatives  to  the  International 
Council  shall  be  ELECTED  by  POPULAR  VOTE,  on  the  basis 
of  proportional  representation,  from  twice  the  number  of 
candidates  to  be  elected. 

(b)  The  candidates  to  be  elected  shall  be  NOMINATED 
on  two  thirds  vote  of  the  POPULAR  BRANCH  OF  THE  LEGIS- 
LATURE of  each  constituent  state. 

(c)  Elections  shall  be  conducted  by  the  respective 
states,  except  where  conditions  of  fairness  and  justice 
may  make  it  necessary  to  put  them  under  the  supervision 
of  an  International  Elections  Commission. 

(d)  Representatives  shall  serve  for  a  term  of  three 
years. 

4.  (a)    The  International  Council  or  its  agents  shall 
be  endowed  with  whatever  powers  are  necessary  to  carry 
out  the  aims  of  the  League,  subject  only  to  the  following 
limitations: 

i.  It  shall  pass  no  general  law  limiting  the  po- 
litical independence,  the  territorial  integrity,  or 
equality  of  economic  opportunity  of  any  member 
of  the  League. 

ii.  It  shall  pass  no  general  law  in  any  way 
limiting  the  cultural,  religious,  economic  or  civil 
freedom  of  racial  minorities  within  the  constituent 
states  of  the  League. 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       43 

iii.  International  legislation  may  be  initiated  by 
the  vote  of  a  majority  of  the  popular  legislature 
of  any  state. 

iv.  International  referendum  to  such  state  legis- 
latures or  to  the  peoples  of  such  states  may  be 
ordered  by  one  third  the  voting  power  in  the 
International  Council. 

(b)  i.  The  International  Council  or  its  duly  delegated 
representatives  alone  shall  have  power  to  wage  war, 
to  permit  war  to  be  waged  or  to  punish  international 
offenders  by  various  degrees  of  non-intercourse, 
excommunication  or  interdict  such  as  embargoes, 
the  prohibition  of  loans,  of  the  payment  of  debts, 
of  trading  in  securities,  of  communications,  of 
imports  or  exports  or  both,  of  harborage,  etc. 

ii.  The  International  Council  shall  have  power  to 
require  the  constituent  states  of  the  League  of  Na- 
tions to  furnish  the  military  and  naval  comple- 
ments to  enforce  its  decrees,  if  necessary. 

The  first  problem  which  presents  itself  in  providing 
for  an  International  Council  is  the  old  one  as  to  whether 
it  is  to  be  chosen  by  governments  or  by  peoples.  For 
those  who  believe  in  democracy  there  is  no  choice. 
Bureaucratism  is  a  constant  menace  even  of  democratic 
states,  and  is  imminent  hi  America;  and  the  ease  with 
which  even  responsible  governments  may  be  turned 
into  instruments  of  oppression  admits  of  no  alternative 
to  election  by  peoples.  It  is  certain  that  the  traditional 
way  of  choosing  men  to  handle  international  affairs 
has  brought  the  world  no  good,  and  it  is  equally  certain 
that  no  harm  can  come  to  it  from  trying  the  other 
way.  The  only  objection  that  can  be  offered  to  the 
other  way  is  that  it  complicates  the  problems  of  the 


44  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

citizen,  that  it  multiplies  elections,  that  it  is  slow  and 
clumsy.  But  surely  international  affairs  are  not  more 
important  than  the  national  ones  which  are  the  average 
citizen's  prime  concern,  and  if  the  average  citizen  is 
competent  to  elect  the  personnel  of  his  national  govern- 
ment he  is  also  competent  to  elect  the  personnel  of  his 
international  government.  It  is  true  that  he  does  not 
now  know  so  much  about  international  affairs  as  ahout 
home  matters.  That,  however,  is  not  his  fault. 
Foreign  affairs  were  intentionally  kept  out  of  the  field 
of  his  attention  by  secret  diplomacy,  which  made  up 
his  mind  for  him  on  these  matters.  By  the  time  they 
were  permitted  to  come  to  his  attention  it  was  too 
late;  his  life  and  his  goods  had  been  pledged,  to  insure 
this  financial  enterprise  or  that,  to  fight  this  war  or 
that,  for  this  or  that  apparent  cause.  What  alone  can 
be  an  effective  "democratic  control  of  foreign  affairs" 
is  the  democratic  control  of  the  managers  of  foreign 
affairs.  Candidates  for  membership  in  the  Inter- 
national Council  will  have  to  stand  upon  some  definite 
platform  or  other.  They  will  have  to  define  policies 
and  persuade  voters.  International  issues  will  thus 
get  thorough  airing  and  become  the  direct  and  the 
living  concern  of  the  average  voter,  at  least  during 
election  time.  At  the  very  worst,  they  will  not  get  a 
less  thorough  discussion  than  national  issues.  Cer- 
tainly, the  delegates  of  the  constituent  states  to  the 
International  Council  must  be  elected,  and  if  possible 
on  the  basis  of  proportional  representation.  Their 
nomination  is  another  matter.  The  possibility  of  a 
free-for-all  nomination  involves  too  many  complica- 
tions; so  does  a  primary,  and  the  use  of  nominating 
conventions  would  involve  an  unnecessary  addition 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        45 

to  the  strength  of  "interests."  On  the  other  hand, 
the  popular  body  of  national  legislatures  would  serve 
very  well  as  a  nominating  committee.  It  would  be  in 
closer  touch  with  the  details  of  international  problems, 
and  the  proviso  that  nominations  should  require  two 
thirds  votes  would  insure  the  naming  of  candidates  of 
more  than  one  party  or  opinion.  Nominations  also 
might  be  made  on  the  principle  of  proportional  voting. 
The  term  of  service  has  been  set  at  three  years  in  order 
that  the  public  mind  might  be  brought  to  a  direct 
concern  with  international  affairs  at  not  too  infrequent 
intervals.  Perhaps  the  wisest  proceeding  would  be 
to  have  the  total  number  of  delegates  any  state  may 
send  divided  into  groups  serving  one,  two,  and  three 
years,  and  thereafter  to  hold  annual  elections  of  dele- 
gates to  serve  three  years.  In  this  way  both  responsi- 
bility of  public  opinion  and  continuity  of  administration 
will  be  secured,  with  no  too  long  ballot  even  for  a 
state  electing  the  maximum  number  of  candidates. 

Two  additional  observations  regarding  the  provisions 
for  the  nomination  and  election  of  delegates  to  the 
International  Council  are  pertinent: 

First:  There  is  no  interference  with  the  "internal 
affairs"  of  any  country.  Such  interference  is  likely  to 
be  a  very  sore  point  with  a  defeated  Germany  and  an 
insurmountable  obstacle  with  a  stalemated  Germany. 
Any  state  entering  the  League  may  keep  or  choose  for 
the  management  of  its  internal  affairs  any  government 
it  pleases.  Unless  such  a  government  does  things  that 
come  under  the  jurisdiction  of  international  agencies, 
the  international  organization  has  neither  right  nor 
claim  to  interfere  with  it.  When  the  matter  in  issue 
is,  however,  the  choice  of  international  officers,  the 


46  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

international  organization  may  make  what  rules  it 
deems  fitting  and  necessary,  so  long  as  they  apply 
equally  and  absolutely  to  all  its  constituent  states. 

Second:  This  situation  does  not,  however,  prevent 
the  influence  of  the  naming  and  choosing  of  interna- 
tional councilmen  from  pressing  in  each  state  in  the 
direction  of  democracy.  In  Germany,  for  example, 
it  would  be  the  Reichstag  which  would  nominate  the 
Councilmen  and  all  the  people  who  would  elect  them. 
So  also  in  Austria;  so  in  other  countries  with  limited 
suffrage  and  irresponsible  government.  The  demo- 
cratic difference  in  favor  of  the  international  organiza- 
tion would  on  the  one  hand  tend  to  make  it  the  repre- 
sentative of  peoples  as  against  governments  and  so 
strengthen  its  chances  for  survival,  while  on  the  other, 
governments  would  have  to  become  responsible  and 
suffrage  universal  in  order  to  meet  the  competition  of 
the  international  organization  for  popular  allegiance. 

As  for  the  powers  of  the  Council  —  they  are  neces- 
sarily determined  by  its  purpose,  and  specification  of 
them  would  lead  only  to  trouble-making  legalisms, 
and  perhaps  serve  to  defeat  the  very  ends  for  which 
the  League  is  created.  It  is  much  simpler  to  fix 
limits  which  the  League  of  Nations  and  its  instruments 
may  not  pass,  and  these  limits  are  the  obvious  ones 
set  by  the  demands  for  the  security  and  freedom  of 
states  and  of  minorities  within  those  states.  The 
dangers  of  oppression  are  further  offset  by  providing 
that  the  popular  branches  of  the  legislatures  of  con- 
stituent states  may  initiate  legislation  in  the  Inter- 
national Council,  and  that  a  referendum  either  to  these 
legislatures  or  the  peoples  they  represent  may  be 
called  by  one  third  of  the  voters  in  the  International 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       47 

Council.  Under  these  conditions  no  act  of  the  Inter- 
national Council  can  properly  become  usurpation,  and 
the  one  power  which  is  assigned  to  it  exclusively,  the 
power  of  waging  economic  or  military  war  or  both, 
and  to  require  the  constituent  states  to  serve  in  such 
war,  is  purged  as  far  as  is  humanly  possible,  of  what 
menace  it  may  carry  toward  the  integrity  and  freedom 
of  states  without  at  the  same  time  being  deprived  of 
the  essentials  of  power.  Altogether,  the  International 
Council  herein  provided  for  will  prove  the  simplest  of 
instruments  compatible  with  democratic  control,  with 
responsiveness  to  public  opinion  and  with  administra- 
tive responsibility. 

B.  The  International  Commissions. 

To  carry  out  common  international  enterprises,  to 
effect  security,  freedom  and  equality  of  economic  and 
cultural  opportunity  among  the  states  of  the  League 
and  their  peoples,  to  safeguard  the  rights  and  freedom  of 
weak  or  undeveloped  nations  and  races,  the  International 
Council  shall  delegate  its  powers  to  the  following  Inter- 
national Commissions. 

(a)  The  International  Commission  on  Armaments 

(b)  The  Commission  on  International  Commerce 
with  the  following  sub-commissions  on  - 

1.  Raw  Materials  6.   Communications 

2.  Food  (a)  post;    (b)   cables 

3.  Waterways  (c)   telephones 

4.  Highways  (d)   wireless 

5.  Airways  7.  Shipping 

(c)  The    International    Commission    on    Central 
Africa 


48  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

(d)  The   Commission    on   International   Finance 
with  two  sub-commissions  on  - 

1.  The  International  Stabilization  of  Credit 

2.  Political  Loans  and  Investments 

(e)  The  Commission  on  Undeveloped  Countries 

(f)  The  Commission  on  International  Education 

(g)  The  Commission  on  International  Hygiene 
(h)    The  International  Commission  on  Labor 

2.  (a)    The  members  of  these  commissions  shall    be 
elected  by  the  International  Council  from  twice  the  num- 
ber nominated  by  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature 
in  each  constituent  state,  the  number  from  any  state  to  be 
determined  by  the  International  Council  in  the  same  way 
as  the  voting  power  of  the  state  in  the  International 
Council: 

(b)   International  Commissioners  shall  serve  for  a 
term  of  four  years. 

3.  (a)   Appeals  may  be  taken  from  the  decisions  of 
the  International  Commissions  first  to  the  International 
Court,  and  thence  to  the  International  Council 

(b)    The  matters  subject  to  appeal  shall  be  defined 
by  the  Council. 

The  problems  of  positive  administration  which  a 
League  of  Nations  must  face  are  primarily  those  of 
prevention,  not  of  cure.  A  court  can  only  settle  disputes 
after  they  have  arisen,  and  so  long  as  the  old  conditions 
of  international  rivalry  continue,  disputes  must  go  on 
and  wars  sooner  or  later  break  out.  It  is  not  proposed 
here  to  abolish  international  rivalry;  competition  is 
the  root  of  excellence  as  well  as  the  life  of  trade.  But 
it  is  proposed  to  provide  for  this  rivalry  a  "new  free- 
dom" by  abolishing  the  unfair  conditions  under  which 
it  has  operated  and  substituting  for  those,  conditions  of 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        4g 

equal  opportunity  in  the  field  of  international  economic 
endeavor. 

The  International  Commissions  are  the  instruments 
proposed  for  this  purpose.  They  have  their  sanction 
in  custom  and  their  precedents  in  history.  The 
Danube  Commission,  the  different  joint  commissions 
from  time  to  time  appointed  by  various  powers  to 
perform  a  piece  of  international  work,  the  Postals  and 
Telegraph  Unions,  all  afford  precedents.  And  the 
record  of  these  commissions,  together  with  the  record 
of  such  bodies  as  the  American  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  is  a  proof  of  their  efficiency  and  promise. 
Commissions  are  the  simplest  and  most  readily  avail- 
able form  of  administrative  organization  at  hand. 
Their  creation  involves  the  least  disturbance  of  existing 
conditions  which  solving  the  international  problems 
leaves  possible.  These  problems,  in  their  war-breeding 
aspects,  are  of  four  types: 

1.  The   commercial   problem, — with   its   conflicts 
for  the  monopoly  of  raw  materials,  markets,  fields  of 
investment,    possession    of   trade    routes,    and    com- 
munications. 

2 .  The  financial  problem — which  is  prior  and  related ; 
first,  because  the  commercial  problem  arises  largely 
from  the  hunger  of  surplus  capital  for  foreign  invest- 
ment;  and  second,  because  unfair  economic  competi- 
tion causes  irregularity  and  fluctuation  in  the  money 
markets  and  inflates  and  deflates  the  value  of  money 
without  regard  to  its  efficacious  physical  basis  or  the 
securities  which  represent  this  basis. 

3.  The  problem  of  undeveloped  territories,  back- 
ward   countries,    all   subject   to   the   exploitation   of 
capital  by  means  of  loans,  concessions,  etc,  and  the 


5o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

rivalry  over  securing  the  same  by  monopolizing  areas 
as  spheres  of  influence,  protectorates  and  colonies. 
Cases  are,  —  the  conflict  of  the  French  and  English 
interests  over  the  Sudan  and  Egypt,  of  French  and 
German  interests  over  Morocco,  of  German  and 
English  interests  over  the  Bagdad  Railway,  of  English 
and  Russian  interests  over  Persia. 

4.  The  problem  of  armament  —  itself  a  direct 
derivative  of  these  prior  problems,  for  competitive 
armings  did  not  begin  until  financial  imperialism  made 
it  seem  desirable. 

The  International  Commissions  —  on  Commerce, 
Finance,  Central  Africa,  Undeveloped  countries,  and 
Armament  —  are  designed,  by  appropriate  regulation 
and  control  maintaining  equality  of  economic  oppor- 
tunity under  the  legislation  of  the  International 
Council,  to  prevent  the  recurrence  and  development  of 
war-breeding  competition.  In  addition,  three  other 
commissions  seem  advisable;  one  on  international 
hygiene  and  one  on  international  education  and  one  on 
the  international  aspects  of  labor. 

For  the  nomination  of  the  membership  of  these 
commissions,  it  seems  wisest  again  to  throw  all  the 
power  as  near  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind  as  practic- 
able. This  is  obviously  the  popular  branch  of  the 
legislature  of  each  constituent  state,  while  an  inter- 
national check  is  provided  against  too  much  nationalism 
by  putting  the  election  in  the  hands  of  the  International 
Council,  whose  interest  it  will  be  to  make  sure  that  the 
Commissioners  are  such  as  can  carry  out  the  spirit  as 
well  as  the  letter  of  the  international  law.  Subject  to 
this  dual  responsibility,  no  commissioner  can  go  far 
wrong.  If  at  the  same  time  he  knows  that  at  the  end 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        5i 

of  his  stewardship  he  will  be  called  upon  to  give  a 
formal  accounting  of  his  entire  record  which  has,  in 
the  interim,  been  open  to  public  inspection  anyhow, 
the  safeguard  against  usurpation  is  as  complete  as 
possible.  The  limitation  of  service,  again,  to  a  term 
of  years  is  certain  to  prevent  any  serious  abuse  of 
power. 

As  to  the  number  of  men  on  the  different  commis- 
sions and  the  representation  on  them  of  various  states, 
it  is  clear  that,  wherever  possible,  the  people  most 
directly  concerned  should  be  represented  by  at  least 
one  commissioner.  A  sub-commission  on  Persia,  for 
example,  should  number  among  its  members  a  Persian 
representative.  Whether  it  should  number  also  repre- 
sentatives of  England  and  Russia  is  much  more  uncer- 
tain. The  Danube  Commission  undoubtedly  worked 
so  well  because  the  riparian  powers  most  likely  to  come 
to  no  useful  agreement  over  the  problems  the  com- 
mission was  created  to  solve  were  not  represented  on 
it.  Recause  they  were  not  represented  the  commission 
was  enabled  to  work  out  a  highly  effective  constructive 
poh'cy,  better  on  the  whole  and  in  the  long  run  for  all 
the  riparian  powers  concerned  and  for  the  continent  of 
Europe.  The  question  is  a  delicate  and  difficult  one. 
However,  the  principle  that  stands  out  most  clearly 
is  this  —  that  no  matter  how  a  sub-commission  on 
Persia  may  be  constituted,  its  business  must  be  to 
administer  first  of  all  in  the  interests  of  the  men  and 
women  and  children  of  Persia  and  not  of  anything  or 
anybody  else.  In  so  far  as  it  does  so  and  only  so,  it 
administers  in  the  interest  of  the  peace  of  the  world. 
On  the  whole  it  would  seem  that  in  the  appointment  of 
a  good  many  of  the  commissioners,  the  representation 


52  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

of  States  is  of  far  less  importance  than  the  fitness  of 
individuals:  Mr.  Morgan  Shuster  represented  no 
interested  state  in  Persia.  The  procedure,  then,  in 
the  establishment  particularly  of  such  commissions  as 
those  on  Central  Africa,  on  undeveloped  countries,  and 
so  on,  might  well  be  one  in  which  the  Council  fixes  the 
number  of  the  commissioners  and  invites  the  popular 
legislatures  of  certain  states  to  name  twice  the  number 
of  candidates  to  be  chosen  from  each  state.  The 
Council  then  chooses  the  set  number  of  candidates 
from  the  nominees  submitted  by  the  legislatures.  The 
members  of  all  the  other  commissions  would  be  nomi- 
nated and  elected  on  the  same  basis  of  representation 
as  the  members  of  the  International  Council.  Thus, 
if  the  International  Commerce  Commission  were  to  be 
composed  of  fifty  members,  the  United  States,  the 
British  Empire,  Germany,  France  and  Japan  might 
be  represented  by  ten  to  six  each,  and  the  other  states 
in  due  proportion,  according  to  their  status  between 
the  upper  and  lower  limits  of  eligibility  to  membership 
in  the  League  of  Nations.  Certain  states  might  not 
be  represented  at  all.  So  long,  however,  as  the  Com- 
missions were  responsible  to  the  International  Council 
the  separate  interests  of  these  states,  in  so  far  as  they 
had  any,  would  be  sufficiently  safeguarded. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  COMMERCE   COMMISSION 

When  the  war  began  England  was  mistress  of  the 
seas.  Because  of  her  enormous  navy,  her  possession 
of  Gibraltar  and  Suez,  and  of  innumerable  islands  of 
the  sea,  she  was  in  control  of  the  world's  highways  and 
consequently  of  the  world's  commerce.  This  control 
Germany  regarded  as  unfair  and  predatory,  and  her 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       53 

naval  program  was  intended  at  least  to  divide  it 
with  England,  if  not  to  wrest  it  from  her.  She  kept 
demanding  the  "freedom  of  the  seas, "which  meant, 
in  effect,  the  freedom  to  disregard  the  English  navy. 
This  navy,  on  the  whole,  has  been  the  maritime  police- 
man of  the  world.  But,  of  course,  its  first  duty  and 
its  last  duty  was  to  safeguard  English  colonies  and 
English  shipping.  The  carrier  trade  of  the  world  was 
largely  England's,  and  so  far  forth  the  prosperity  of 
trading  countries  was  in  her  hands.  How  completely 
this  was  the  case  became  apparent  when  she  entered 
the  war.  Her  blockade  of  Germany  cut  that  country  off 
from  all  kinds  of  raw  materials  indispensable  to  the  con- 
duct of  war  and  interfered  with  the  shipping  of  neutral 
countries  to  a  degree  without  parallel  in  recent  history 
in  its  range  and  illegality.  Her  navy  enabled  her  to  vio- 
late international  law  at  every  point  she  found  it  neces- 
sary or  desirable  to  do  so.  It  enabled  her  to  dislocate 
seriously  the  trade  of  Holland,  of  the  Scandinavian 
countries  and  of  the  United  States.  She  compelled 
the  shippers  of  these  countries  to  operate  under  her 
licenses.  She  decided  what  they  should  ship  and  what 
they  should  not  ship.  Had  her  cause  not  been  righteous 
and  carried  with  it  the  full  sympathy  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  war  between  her  and  America  could 
hardly  have  been  avoided.  American  tolerance  of 
England  was  in  fact  measurable  by  the  frightfulness  of 
Germany.  A  decent  Germany  would  have  meant  a 
far  more  sharply  challenged  England.  The  brutality 
of  Germany  however  meant  only  a  series  of  somewhat 
more  than  formal  American  protests  against  England, 
for  the  sake  of  the  record.  The  German  use  of  the 
submarine  did  not  help  the  German  case  at  all;  it 


54  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

only  helped  to  make  English  violating  of  international 
law  seem  child's  play  and  to  speed  the  United  States 
into  the  war. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  future  of  the  world, 
however,  the  submarine's  most  serious  consequence 
was  its  effect  on  the  economic  organization  of  England 
and  her  allies.  It  did  genuinely  cut  into  English  and 
neutral  shipping.  It  did  effectively  cut  off  England 
from  much  in  the  wide  world  on  which  England  de- 
pended. It  compelled  England  to  eliminate  lost 
motion  in  her  economic  operations  and  to  reorganize 
for  victory  in  the  very  heart  of  her  tradition-ridden 
institutions  as  well  as  on  the  periphery.  Take,  for 
example,  the  wool  and  worsted  industries.  In  those 
industries  the  English  made  a  very  significant  experi- 
ment in  control. 

"The  control  applies  to  both  these  industries,  for 
they  are  both  concerned  with  the  requirements  of  the 
army,  and  they  are,  of  course,  very  intimately  asso- 
ciated. Roughly  speaking,  worsted  differs  from  woollen 
in  its  raw  material  and  in  the  preparation  that  material 
undergoes.  The  worsted  mill  uses  long  wools  ranging 
in  length  up  to  i4  or  even  17  inches;  the  woollen  mill 
uses  short  wools,  the  fibres  of  which  vary  from  £  inch 
to  2 1  inches.  The  wool  used  by  a  worsted  weaver  has 
been  combed  before  it  is  spun.  Combing  is  the  process 
by  which  the  long  wool  called  the  'tops'  is  separated 
from  the  short,  the  'noils.'  The  wool  used  by  a 
woollen  weaver  is  carded  —  that  is,  whereas  in  combing 
the  fibres  are  made  to  lie  straight  and  parallel,  in  card- 
ing they  are  made  to  overlap  one  another.  Worsted 
fabrics  are  generally  lighter  and  finer  than  woollen. 
They  are  made,  for  example,  into  men's  dress  suits, 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        55 

and  into  certain  serges.  Woollens  are  used  for  fine 
broadcloths,  winter  overcoats  and  tweeds.  The 
worsted  industry  is  strongest  in  Bradford,  Hudders- 
field  and  Halifax;  the  woollen  in  Leeds  and  the  neigh- 
bouring districts,  in  the  West  of  England  and  in 
4  Scotland. 

"It  is  characteristic  of  the  woollen  and  worsted 
industries  that  the  family  type  of  business  is  prevalent, 
and  the  normal  mill  is  comparatively  small.  There 
are  rather  under  three  hundred  thousand  persons 
engaged  in  the  industry,  and  the  average  number  of 
work  people  in  a  woollen  mill  is  100;  in  a  worsted  mill 
200.  Cotton  is  much  more  highly  organized  from  every 
point  of  view.  As  Dr.  J.  H.  Clapham  points  out  in 
his  admirable  book  on  'The  Woollen  and  Worsted 
Industries,'  'It  is  never  possible  to  gauge  the  general 
prosperity  of  worsted  spinning  by  comparing  the 
balance-sheets  and  dividends  of  scores  of  limited  mills, 
whereas  this  is  regularly  done  in  the  case  of  Lancashire 
cotton  spinning.'  Organization  among  employers  has 
developed  more  slowly  in  wool  than  in  cotton,  and 
trade  unionism  at  the  outbreak  of  war,  outside  a  few 
craft  unions,  was  lamentably  weak.  This  general 
contrast  was  partly  due  to  history.  The  factory  sys- 
tem swallowed  up  the  cotton  industry  much  earlier 
than  the  woollen.  Dr.  Clapham  tells  us  that  even  so 
lately  as  forty  years  ago,  handloom  weavers  were  an 
important  body  of  men  in  the  small  towns  and  villages 
round  Leeds,  Huddersfield  and  Dewsbury. 

"One  other  general  fact  about  the  industry  must  be 
grasped  if  we  are  to  appreciate  the  task  that  the  Govern- 
ment undertook  when  it  set  to  work  on  this  scheme  of 
control.  The  worsted  industry  is  very  highly  special- 


56  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

ized.  The  wool  merchant  buys  wool,  blends  and  sorts 
it.  He  then  sends  it  to  a  wool-comber  who  combs  it 
into  tops.  The  tops  are  sold  to  a  spinner,  who  spins 
them  into  yarn  and  sells  his  yarn  to  the  manufacturer. 
The  yarn  is  then  woven  into  pieces,  in  which  form  the 
cloth  is  sent  to  the  dyer.  In  the  woollen  industry 
there  is  rather  less  specialization,  for  carding,  spuming, 
and  weaving  are  generally  carried  on  hi  the  same  mill. 
It  is  clear  from  this  account  that  the  industry  is  highly 
complicated  with  a  number  of  different  interests,  and 
that  the  problem  of  organizing  and  controlling  it 
presents  special  difficulties. 

"The  necessity  for  control  of  some  kind  became 
evident  in  the  early  part  of  1916,  when  the  Government 
realized  that  unless  some  check  was  put  upon  prices, 
the  cost  of  clothing  the  army  would  be  ruinous.  In 
the  old  days  the  army  got  what  it  needed  by  com- 
petitive tender,  but  the  conditions  were  now  quite 
abnormal.  The  needs  of  the  army  in  khaki,  flannel 
and  blankets  were  on  a  stupendous  scale,  and  the 
export  trade  was  stimulated  by  the  immense  require- 
ments of  our  Allies.  The  War  Office  Contracts  Depart- 
ment, accordingly,  determined  to  organize  production 
for  its  own  needs,  taking  power  by  an  Order  in  Council 
under  the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Regulations,  to 
requisition  the  output  of  any  factory  on  terms  based 
on  the  cost  of  production  plus  a  reasonable  profit. 
They  arrived  at  this  figure  by  examining  the  books  of 
different  firms,  and  calling  on  manufacturers  to  supply 
detailed  information  as  to  their  output,  their  cost  of 
production,  and  the  profits  they  had  earned.  Hence 
at  the  outset  an  important  principle  was  introduced, 
for  the  different  sections  of  the  trade  affected  were 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        67 

called  on  to  nominate  representative  committees,  and 
the  '  conversion  costs '  -  -  that  is,  the  scale  of  payment 
prescribed  for  a  particular  operation,  based  on  the  cost 
of  that  operation  —  was  agreed  with  these  committees. 
That  is,  an  industry  in  which  organization  was  at  the 
time  in  a  most  elementary  condition  was  obliged  to 
choose  representatives  and  to  take  a  wider  view  of  its 
interests  in  order  to  secure  a  proper  hearing  from  a 
Government  Department. 

"So  far  the  Government  had  merely  arranged  to 
get  a  certain  amount  of  work  done  by  the  manufac- 
turers at  a  reasonable  rate.  This  volume  of  work 
was  a  great  and  increasing  proportion  of  the  trade  as  a 
whole,  for  it  soon  came  to  include  not  merely  the  re- 
quirements of  the  Governments  of  our  army,  but  all 
the  requirements  of  the  Governments  of  our  Allies  as 
well.  But  before  long  it  became  clear  that  the  control 
was  too  limited,  for  the  price  of  raw  wool  was  advanc- 
ing at  an  alarming  rate,  and  this  rise  of  price  was  a 
warning  that  the  supply  of  wool  was  not  equal  to  the 
world's  demands.  In  191 5  there  was  a  serious  shrink- 
age in  the  production  of  wool  in  Austria,  where  drought 
had  reduced  the  sheep  flocks  from  82  millions  to  69 
millions,  and  also  in  South  America,  where  cattle 
raising  and  wheat  growing  were  developing  into 
powerful  rivals.  Meanwhile,  America  had  removed 
her  import  duties  on  wool  and  her  consumption  was 
increasing.  The  War  Office  Contracts  Department 
realized  that  as  a  measure  of  national  safety  it  was 
essential  to  secure  the  raw  material  that  was  needed 
for  our  consumption  and  the  consumption  of  our 
Allies.  Accordingly,  the  Government  decided  in  May, 
1916,  to  buy  the  Home  Clip.  They  divided  the  coun- 


58  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

try  into  districts,  appointed  experienced  wool  buyers 
as  officials  to  superintend  the  transaction,  and  for  the 
detailed  purchase  they  employed  wool  merchants 
working  on  commission.  The  prices  were  roughly  35 
per  cent  above  the  prices  ruling  in  July,  igi4.  A  still 
more  important  step  was  taken  in  the  autumn,  when 
the  Government  decided  to  buy  the  whole  of  the 
Australasian  Clips.  In  this  case  the  arrangements 
were  made  with  the  Colonial  Governments,  who  acted 
as  the  Government's  agents.  Two-fifths  of  the  wool 
is  cross-bred,  the  best  for  military  purposes,  and  the 
rest  merino. 

"These  transactions  entirely  altered  the  Govern- 
ment's relations  to  the  trade,  for  they  put  the  supplies 
of  the  trade  in  the  hands  of  the  Government.  The 
Home  Clip  accounted  for  a  ninth  part  of  the  consump- 
tion in  191 5;  the  Australian  Clips  represent  half  the 
world's  exportable  resources.  The  Government  had, 
therefore,  to  arrange  for  distribution  to  the  industry, 
and  to  provide  not  merely  the  wool  that  was  needed 
for  Government  cloth,  but  the  wool  that  was  going  to 
be  passed  on  to  the  civilian  trade.  It  is  obvious  that 
this  responsibility  introduced  all  kinds  of  delicate 
questions.  For  one  thing,  there  was  the  question  of 
distribution.  The  wool  that  the  Government  did  not 
require  was  to  be  sold,  but  if  the  supply  was  less  than 
the  demand,  on  what  principles  was  it  to  be  assigned? 
At  the  time,  the  state  of  the  foreign  exchanges  gave  a 
special  importance  to  the  export  trade,  and  priority 
was  accordingly  given  to  the  needs  of  that  trade.  But 
the  Government  had  to  consider,  not  merely  the 
distribution,  but  the  economy  of  supplies,  complicated 
as  it  was  by  the  general  difficulty  of  tonnage.  The 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       69 

nation  had  to  be  made  secure  against  the  risk  of  a 
failure  of  supplies  and  for  this  purpose  it  was  necessary 
to  regulate  the  consumption  of  wool  by  the  trade. 
Here  were  two  problems  full  of  material  for  dispute. 

"The  Government  took  measures  to  facilitate  the 
execution  of  its  task.  A  Department  was  set  up  in 
Bradford,  men  of  experience  and  standing  in  the  trade 
were  enlisted  as  Government  officials,  a  Wool  Advisory 
Committee  was  formed  representing  different  sections 
of  the  industry,  and  trade  unions,  as  well  as  employers' 
associations.  But  the  early  proceedings  of  the  De- 
partment provoked  resentment  and  suspicion  in  the 
trade,  and  the  columns  of  the  Yorkshire  Observer  and 
the  Yorkshire  Post  during  the  summer  months  reflect 
the  agitations  and  the  discontents  of  the  industry. 
There  is  no  part  of  the  country  where  bureaucratic 
control  is  regarded  with  greater  dislike,  and  so  far  the 
scheme  was  in  its  essence  bureaucratic.  The  hard- 
headed  Yorkshireman  is  the  last  man  in  the  world  to 
accept  dictation  from  an  official.  Mr.  H.  W.  Forster, 
the  Financial  Secretary  to  the  War  Office,  visited 
Bradford,  and  addressed  critical  and  even  hostile 
meetings.  Deputations  went  up  from  Bradford  to 
London.  It  looked  as  if  the  trade  were  irreconcilable, 
and  the  prospects  of  any  effective  co-operation  seemed 
almost  desperate.  The  situation  was  saved  by  the 
offer  of  the  Department  to  set  up  a  Board  of  Control, 
and  thereby  enable  the  industry  itself  to  regulate  the 
working  of  the  scheme,  subject  only  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  essential  requirements  of  the  Government. 
The  Board  was  formed  in  September,  and  its  powers 
were  defined  by  an  Order  of  the  Army  Council  the 
same  month. 


6o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

"The  Board  consists  of  thirty-three  members,  of 
whom  eleven  are  Government  officials,  many  of  them 
manufacturers  or  merchants  in  the  present  or  the  past. 
Thus,  Sir  Charles  Sykes,  the  Controller,  who  is  the 
chairman  of  the  Board,  and  a  very  successful  chair- 
man, has  been  closely  associated  with  the  industry, 
and  he  speaks  with  an  intimate  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence of  its  circumstances  and  needs.  Most  of  the 
eleven  official  members  are  in  the  same  case.  Eleven 
again  represent  spinners  and  manufacturers.  Three 
are  chosen  by  the  West  Riding  Spinners'  Federation, 
three  by  the  Woollen  and  Worsted  Trades  Federation, 
and  one  each  by  the  Scottish  Manufacturers,  the  West 
of  England  Manufacturers  Association,  the  Hosiery 
Manufacturers,  the  Low  Wool  Users  (i.e.  men  who 
make  blankets,  etc.)  and  the  Shoddy  and  Mungo 
Manufacturers'  Association.  Lastly,  the  Trade  Unions 
have  eleven  members  representing  the  several  craft 
unions  and  the  General  Union  of  Textile  Workers. 

"The  setting  up  of  the  Board  is  an  immense  event 
in  an  industry  where  individualist  tradition  is  so 
persistent.  The  different  groups  of  interests  have 
been  compelled  to  co-operate,  and  to  recognize  that 
the  industry  as  a  whole  has  interests  and  responsi- 
bilities. And  the  work  of  the  Board  is  of  the  most 
important  and  delicate  kind.  The  War  Office  reserves 
to  itself  certain  powers.  It  decides  the  amount  of 
raw  material  to  be  maintained  for  military  purposes; 
it  settles  the  terms  and  conditions  of  Government 
contracts;  keeps  in  its  own  hands  all  financial  arrange- 
ments and  carries  out  all  the  earlier  processes  such  as 
the  cleaning,  blending,  and  combing  of  the  raw  wool. 
It  is  not  until  the  wool  has  reached  the  topmaking 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       61 

stage,  subject  to  the  above  reservations,  that  the 
control  of  the  Board  begins.  At  that  stage  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  Board  to  regulate  all  allocation  of  wool, 
tops,  and  other  products,  and  by-products,  in  such 
manner  as:  — 

(a)  To  secure  the  most  efficient  execution  of  Govern- 
ment orders  for  supplies  of  woollen  and 
worsted  goods. 

(6)  To  employ  to  the  greatest  advantage  the  labour, 
machinery  and  skill  now  engaged  in  the 
industry. 

(c)  To  keep  in  full  use  the  greatest  possible  propor- 
tion of  the  machinery  at  present  employed  in 
the  trade. 

"  Its  actual  duties  differ  in  the  case  of  wool  destined 
for  military  requirements,  and  of  wool  destined  for  the 
civilian  trade.  Contracts  for  the  execution  of  Govern- 
ment orders  are  allocated  by  a  Committee;  the  spinners 
and  manufacturers  are  paid  on  the  basis  of  conversion 
costs,  and  there  is  no  element  of  speculative  profit. 
It  is  laid  down  in  the  Order  of  the  Army  Council  that 
the  officials  of  the  Department  shall  obtain  the  advice 
and  concurrence  of  the  Board  in  so  far  as  is  necessary 
to  secure  the  most  efficient  and  equable  distribution  as 
between  districts,  trades,  groups,  and  individual  firms, 
and  to  secure  all  possible  regularity  and  continuity  in 
production.  Thus,  the  responsibility  for  organizing 
the  execution  of  Government  contracts  in  such  a  way 
as  to  promote  the  interests  of  efficiency,  equity  and 
continuous  employment  is  thrown  upon  the  Board. 

"In  the  case  of  wool  for  the  civilian  trade  the  Board 
has  full  and  direct  responsibility  for  the  distribution 


62  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

of  supplies.  'The  Board  is  empowered  to  allocate  as 
between  districts,  trades,  groups,  and  individual  firms 
the  quantity  of  wool  and  tops  available  for  civilian 
trade.'  The  Board  discharges  this  duty  by  setting 
up  a  number  of  rationing  committees  chosen  by  the 
spinners  and  manufacturers,  in  some  cases  with  Trade 
Union  members,  with  a  Joint  Rationing  Committee  in 
control,  on  which  the  several  district  Committees  and 
the  trade  unions  are  represented.  These  Committees 
ascertain  the  main  facts  about  the  needs  and  capacity 
of  the  different  mills  and  the  different  districts,  and 
the  wool  at  the  disposal  of  the  Board  is  distributed  in 
proportion.  Such  a  task  can  only  be  carried  out  by 
the  representatives  of  the  industry;  for  no  Government 
Department  can  command  the  confidence  of  the  men 
who  have  to  make  the  sacrifices  necessary  in  the 
interests  of  justice  and  of  public  safety. 

"The  industry  thus  takes  into  its  own  hands  a 
function  which  at  first  the  Government  itself  attempted 
to  discharge;  a  function  that  in  other  times  has  been 
left  to  the  play  of  economic  forces,  with  results  that 
have  brought  ruin  and  unemployment  in  many  districts 
and  thousands  of  homes.  Instead  of  a  scramble  in 
which  some  men  might  make  fortunes  and  others  pass 
into  the  bankruptcy  court,  with  workpeople  here 
working  overtime  and  there  walking  the  streets  in 
hunger  and  misery,  we  have  an  industry  regulating  its 
fortunes  with  a  view  to  the  common  good.  It  is 
recognized  that  there  is  something  better  than  economic 
law  as  the  arbiter  of  men's  fate.  The  conscious  efforts 
of  a  set  of  men  to  adapt  themselves  to  a  crisis  in  such 
a  way  as  to  check  its  disturbing  consequences  mark  a 
step  of  the  first  importance  in  the  reconstruction  of 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        63 

industry  on  humane  lines.  It  is  difficult  to  calculate 
the  amount  of  pain,  degradation  and  lasting  mischief 
that  would  have  been  averted  if  there  had  been  such  a 
system  in  force  a  hundred  years  ago. 

"Nor  does  this  exhaust  the  duties  of  the  Board. 
A  most  important  clause  in  the  Order  directs  them  to 
take  all  possible  measures  to  protect  the  interest  of 
the  home  consumer,  and  to  secure  equable  treatment 
as  between  various  branches  of  the  industry.  The 
industry  comprises  different  sections  that  are  often  in 
conflict:  merchants,  spinners,  manufacturers.  The 
merchant  may  be  in  a  position  to  exploit  the  spinner; 
the  spinner  to  exploit  the  manufacturer.  The  Board 
presides  like  Olympus  over  all  these  interests,  and 
forces  them  to  accept  a  new  moral  discipline  in  place 
of  the  old  economic  struggle.  Its  very  existence  has^a 
significance  that  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

"Meanwhile,  the  consumer  is  not  forgotten.  'All 
possible  measures  are  to  be  taken  to  protect  him.' 
And  it  speaks  well  for  the  vigour  and  the  resolution  of 
the  Board  that  within  a  few  weeks  of  its  creation  Sir 
Charles  Sykes  can  announce  to  the  Press  that  a  scheme 
is  shortly  to  be  produced  for  checking  profiteering  in 
the  civilian  trade,  and  for  providing  a  standard  cloth 
at  a  fixed  price.  This  does  not  mean  that  we  shall  all 
have  to  wear  clothes  of  the  same  colour  and  pattern 
if  we  want  to  escape  the  high  charges  of  our  tailor. 
What  it  means  is  that  manufacturers  will  be  invited  to 
make  a  certain  quality  and  size  of  cloth,  for  which 
they  will  receive  payment  on  the  basis  of  conversion 
costs  just  as  if  they  were  making  khaki.  The  pattern 
and  the  colour  will  vary  from  one  manufacturer  to 
another.  In  this  way  the  home  consumer  will  be  able 


64  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

to  buy  clothes  of  a  guaranteed  quality  at  a  reasonable 
price. 

"As  a  scheme  for  carrying  the  nation  through  a 
crisis  the  Board  of  Control  is  a  most  interesting  and 
happy  experiment.  But  it  is  infinitely  more  than  this. 
It  presents  a  spectacle  of  a  self-governing  industry 
acquiring  a  new  corporate  spirit,  a  larger  appreciation 
of  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  industry  as  a  whole,  a 
new  sense  of  the  danger  of  uncontrolled  economic 
forces,  and  a  new  consciousness  of  the  place  and  share 
to  which  the  workpeople  are  entitled  in  the  government 
of  the  industrial  world."  1 

In  a  similar  way  the  necessities  of  operation  on  sea 
and  on  land  compelled  England  into  a  progressively 
more  intimate  cooperation  with  her  allies  —  particularly 
in  the  matters  of  food,  other  raw  materials  and  ship- 
ping. A  de  facto  centralized  control  of  all  these 
matters  emerged  slowly  from  the  confusion  of  interests 
and  purposes  and  a  de  facto  free  trade  under  control 
conditions  became  speedily  apparent. 

How  much  the  influence  of  the  United  States  counted 
in  this  unification  cannot  be  estimated.  That  it  was 
the  determining  element  was  conceded  on  all  sides. 
The  United  States,  both  profiting  by  the  experience  of 
the  Allies  and  following  her  own  traditions,  passed 
very  swiftly  through  the  stages  of  disorder  to  efficiency 
of  organization,  and  she  so  passed  along  the  line  of 
her  own  national  traditions.  When  she  entered  the 
war  competition  between  the  Allies  was  the  rule. 
Profiteering  at  the  expense  of  the  Allies  was  the  rule. 
Dependent  on  us  for  food,  textiles,  munitions,  they 
were  bidding  against  each  other  in  order  to  effect  their 

1  Jason:  Past  and  Future,  pp.  126-139. 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       65 

common  purpose.  When  the  United  States  took  a 
partnership  in  this  purpose  this  competitive  iniquity 
could  not  be  tolerated.  No  discrimination  between 
customers  could  be  permissible.  All  the  democratic 
powers  had  to  get  the  same  treatment  in  order  to 
meet  the  same  needs.  Achieving  this  required  first  of 
all  a  pretty  adequate  knowledge  of  existing  resources; 
secondly,  an  organization  to  concentrate  them,  to 
make  them  available,  to  increase  them  or  to  find 
substitutes  for  such  as  are  unavailable  or  insufficient; 
thirdly,  an  organization  to  distribute  them  according  to 
the  greatest  need,  and  with  a  view  of  securing  the  maxi- 
mum of  team  play  and  well-being  among  the  Allies. 

At  first  was  constituted  the  Council  of  National 
Defense  with  its  advisory  commissions.  This  was 
succeeded  by  a  general  Munitions  Roard  with  com- 
mittees in  charge  of  the  various  operations  but  with 
divided  authority,  and  consequently  the  bidding 
against  each  other  of  governmental  departments  and 
the  resulting  graft  and  profiteering.  The  only  com- 
pletely effective  step  in  organization  during  this 
interim  was  the  creation,  under  the  secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  by  Interallied  agreement,  of  the  Allied 
Purchasing  Commission,  consisting  of  three  members  of 
the  first  War  Industries  Roard. 

This  Roard  split  on  problems  of  price  control  as 
against  laissez-faire,  the  health  of  its  members  went  to 
pieces,  and  Congress  began  to  agitate  for  a  ministry 
of  munitions  or  a  war  cabinet.  The  President,  mindful 
of  the  work  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
insisted  however  on  a  body  with  flexible  powers. 
This  body  was  created  by  the  Overman  Bill,  which 
provided  for  a  War  Industries  Board  so  organized  as 


66  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

to  employ  the  best  results  of  American  and  European 
experience. 

Its  functions,  broadly  speaking,  are  to  attain  the 
following  necessary  ends: 

1.  To  survey  and  locate  all  existing  resources. 

2.  To    concentrate    them,    increase    them,    render 
them  available  and  to  find  or  make  substitutes  for 
such  as  are  unavailable  or  insufficient. 

3.  To  coordinate  the  various  national  and  depart- 
mental needs. 

4.  By  licensing  transportation  to  distribute  materials 
according  to  these  needs  on  a  priority  basis. 

5.  To  make  impossible  discrimination  and  profiteer- 
ing by  fixing  prices  and  maintaining  a  blacklist  on  which 
are  listed  all  violators  of  the  war  rules  of  production  or 
distribution.    This  was  rendered  effective  by  requiring 
a  full  record  and  publication  of  accounts. 

Thus  the  War  Industries  Board  makes  sure  that 
none  of  the  three  types  of  customer  whose  needs  it 
must  regard  is  discriminated  against  because  of  the 
others.  Prices  are  the  same  for  the  departments  of  the 
government,  for  our  associates,  for  the  civil  population. 
Raw  material  is  distributed  not  according  to  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  manufacturer  but  according 
to  the  importance  of  his  product  in  the  life  and  labor 
of  the  nation.  Equality  of  economic  opportunity  is 
thus  established  and  maintained.  The  Food  Ad- 
ministration and  other  similar  agencies  operate  in  a 
like  manner. 

To  achieve  its  ends  the  Board  is  organized  as 
follows: 

i.  The  Requirements  Division.  This  division  is 
composed  of  26  men  representing  all  the  needful  groups 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       67 

in  war  work.    They  meet  daily,  to  consider  statements 
of  needs  and  resources. 

2.  The  Distribution  Division,  designed  (a)  to  give 
tools  bivalent  uses  and  (b)  to  establish  the  maximum 
effective  division  of  labor  —  regarding  nearness  to  raw 
materials,    motive    power,    etc.  —  over    the    various 
regions  of  the  country. 

3.  The  Priorities  Committee,  with  the  function  of 
checking  up  demands  and  determining  priority.    Ap- 
peal from  its  decisions  may  be  taken  to  the  chairman 
of  the  War  Industries  Board. 

/i.  The  Bureau  of  Labor,  intended  to  supply  man 
power  and  horsepower  to  war  plants. 

There  are  also  other  ramifications,  not  relevant  to 
the  question  in  hand. 

The  operations  of  the  War  Industries  Board  are 
coordinated  with  those  of  the  Fuel  and  Food  Admin- 
istrations, of  the  War  Trade  Board  and  of  the  Allied 
Purchasing  Commission. 

To  whom  coal  shall  go  first  is  determined  by  the 
judgment  of  the  War  Industries  Board.  Its  need  for 
raw  materials  fixes  the  apportionment  of  food  to 
neutrals  and  the  limitation  of  imports  and  exports  to 
save  tonnage.  Its  dealings  with  the  Allied  Purchasing 
Commission  determines  the  economic  relations  be- 
tween America  and  the  Allies. 

Now  these  Boards  and  Commissions  together  con- 
stitute what  is  practically  an  International  Commerce 
Commission.  Under  war  conditions,  of  course,  the 
belligerents  have  an  absolute  priority,  but  even  then, 
neutrals  in  possession  of  raw  materials  have  to  be 
regarded  and  their  needs  met,  as  the  following  news 
item  shows: 


68  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

"WASHINGTON,  August  i5  (by  A.  P.) 

"Forty  Dutch  ships,  totalling  approximately 
100,000  tons,  now  idle  in  Dutch  East  Indian  ports, 
are  expected  to  be  released  to  bring  sugar,  tin, 
quinine,  and  other  commodities  to  the  United 
States  as  a  result  of  an  informal  modus  vivendi 
effected  by  the  War  Trade  Board  through  Charge 
d'Affaires  de  Beaufort,  of  the  Dutch  legation. 

"Tonnage  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
American  Government  through  the  agreement  will 
be  sufficient,  it  was  estimated  to-day,  to  import 
from  5o,ooo  to  100,000  tons  of  sugar,  and  much 
needed  quantities  of  tin  and  quinine.  In  return 
for  the  tonnage  the  United  States  Government 
will  undertake  to  license  normal  exports  to  the 
islands  subject  only  to  such  limitations  of  com- 
modities as  are  made  necessary  by  the  war  pro- 
gramme. 

"Exports  of  tin,  quinine,  and  other  commodities 
originating  in  the  islands  will  be  accepted  by 
the  United  States  at  the  normal  rate,  and  all  the 
sugar  offered  will  be  taken,  thereby  providing  a 
market  for  as  much  of  the  large  1918  sugar  crop  at 
the  prevailing  high  American  price  as  the  Dutch 
are  able  to  move." 

After  the  war,  however,  a  more  equitable  basis  of 
priority  would  be  established,  and  the  wasteful,  re- 
duplicative and  disorderly  method  of  production  and 
exchange  of  pre-war  times  would  need  simply  to  be 
included  under  the  coordination  of  the  International 
Commerce  Commission  organized  ad  hoc  for  the  good 
of  mankind, 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       69 

There  are  still  other  reasons  for  the  creation  of  such 
a  commission  with  such  purposes.  The  dearth  of 
food  and  raw  material  will  not  end  with  the  war,  and 
the  problems  of  restoration  in  Belgium  and  in  Northern 
France,  in  Russia,  Serbia,  and  Rumania,  will  largely 
depend  for  their  solution  on  an  adequate  and  cheap 
supply  of  both.  The  great  American  advance  in 
shipping  comes  largely  at  the  expense  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  neutrals.  Dangerous  rivalry  and  much  em- 
bitterment  can  be  avoided  in  no  other  way  than  a 
just  and  equal  coordination  of  shipping  interests  under 
international  control.  All  in  all,  the  pressure  of 
post-war  needs,  the  problems  of  restoration,  the 
maintenance  and  enhancement  of  the  friendship  and 
cooperation  now  existing  between  us  and  our  associates 
will  require  the  upkeep  and  expansion  of  some  form  of 
those  international  agencies  for  the  production,  increase, 
accumulation  and  just  and  equitable  distribution  of 
raw  and  finished  materials  which  the  war  has  com- 
pelled us  to  create.  Their  operation  is  notably 
salutary.  With  the  modifications  indicated  by  experi- 
ence and  the  democratization  of  their  control  they 
would  become  international  organs  absolutely  sound. 
Their  working  would  cause  the  least  possible  derange- 
ment of  the  order  now  existing,  while  their  modification 
of  the  future  in  the  direction  of  international  peace  and 
cooperation  would  be  maximal. 

Together,  these  agencies  would  be  the  International 
Commerce  Commission.  They  would  fall  into  three 
great  departments  —  Food,  Raw  Materials,  and  Com- 
munications. Each  would  be  organized  according  to 
the  conditions  and  needs  of  its  particular  province. 
The  subcommission  on  food  might  be  divided  into 


70  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

committees  on  cereals,  on  meat,  and  so  on;  that  on 
raw  materials  into  committees  on  Metals,  on  Textiles, 
on  Fuel  and  so  on;  and  that  on  Communications  into 
committees  or  subcommissions  on  Waterways,  High- 
ways, Airways,  Shipping,  Post,  Telegraph,  Telephone, 
Wireless  and  so  on.  The  Commission  would  serve  to 
secure  for  a  world  at  peace  all  the  advantages  which 
the  present  commissions  and  boards,  that  would  be 
coordinated  into  it,  secure  for  the  democratic  world  at 
war.  It  would  work  on  precisely  the  same  principles 
and  in  much  the  same  ways,  stimulating  production, 
equalizing  and  expanding  distribution,  reducing  the 
possibility  of  overproduction  and  so  the  disastrous 
consequence  of  that,  and  keeping  prices  low.  In- 
directly, it  would  control  armaments  by  controlling 
the  distribution  of  the  raw  materials  necessary  to  the 
manufacture  of  armaments,  and  so  serve  as  an  arrestive 
as  well  as  a  creative  check  upon  the  conditions  that 
make  for  war. 

In  outline,  the  procedure  of  the  Commissions  would 
be  something  like  this.  Each  state  in  the  league 
would,  through  appropriate  instrumentalities  created 
for  the  purpose,  make  weekly  or  monthly  surveys  and 
concentrations  of  the  surplusage  of  food,  fuel  and  raw 
material  available  for  export.  This  would  then  be 
put  at  the  disposal  of  the  proper  sub-commissions  and 
committees  of  the  International  Commerce  Commis- 
sion. To  this  commission  also  would  come  the  collec- 
tive requests  of  the  various  states  for  these  basic  goods. 
The  commission  would  then  apportion  them  on  con- 
siderations of  cheapness  and  economy  of  transport 
and  space,  urgency  of  need,  and  so  on,  by  licensing  the 
necessary  shipping.  It  would  thus  be  enabled  to  mini- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       71 

mize  at  least  secondary  costs,  to  regulate  profits,  and 
to  prevent  unlawful  discrimination  in  restraint  of 
trade.  As  a  check  on  unfairness  or  profiteering  it 
would  have  the  power  to  require  an  accounting  of  the 
receipt,  disposal  and  sale  of  all  goods  carried  under  its 
license.  Offenses  would  meet  with  swift  and  condign 
punishment  by  the  revocation  or  withholding  of  the 
licenses.  One  indirect  effect  of  this  procedure  would 
be  the  destruction  of  the  exploiting  power  of  trusts, 
syndicates  and  cartels  and  the  opening  up  to  individuals 
of  many  avenues  of  industrial  opportunity  destroyed 
by  the  development  of  such  corporations.  Industrially, 
it  would  tend  to  give  the  "new  freedom"  an  interna- 
tional range,  and  this  not  only  to  the  energies  and 
talents  of  men,  but  to  their  capital.  For  as  things  are 
now,  the  investment  of  capital  must  take,  by  and 
large,  prescribed  channels.  Most  of  it  must  go  through 
the  hands  of  the  international  money  power  and 
contribute  to  its  growth  and  profit.  This  is  due  to 
the  unchecked  interlocking  of  financial  with  industrial 
organization,  and  the  interlocking  is  possible  through 
the  agreements  "in  restraint  of  trade."  The  Inter- 
national Commerce  Commission  will  nullify  the  monop- 
olizing effect  of  these  agreements  and  give  the  small 
investor  a  wider  field  and  a  surer  chance. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION   ON   RAW 
MATERIALS 

Metals,  Textiles,  Fuel,  and  Food  * 

How  the  Commission  on  Raw  Materials  and  its 
subcommissions  would  operate  has  been  made  suffi- 
ciently clear  in  the  course  of  the  general  discussion  of 


72  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

the  International  Commerce  Commission.  The  raw 
materials  of  fundamental  importance  are,  of  course, 
metals,  wool  and  cotton,  and  fuel.  Of  the  metals, 
iron  ore  occupies  the  foremost  place.  Much  of  the 
strategy  of  Germany,  much  of  her  international 
maneuvering,  has  the  aim  of  rectifying  the  errors  of 
the  peace  of  1871  which  left  to  France,  through  the 
oversight  of  the  German  chemists,  the  best  of  the 
Lorraine  ore-fields.  The  German  armies  occupied 
these  fields  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  and  have  not 
been  driven  from  there.  The  demand  for  their 
annexation  has  always  been  and  remains  very  strong 
among  German  iron-mongers,  and  the  fear  of  the  loss 
of  their  present  possessions  is  the  basic  reason  for  their 
clinging  to  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  France,  though  rich 
in  iron  ore,  is  poor  in  fuel.  And  in  the  matter  of  fuel, 
Germany  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  world. 
She  has  an  estimated  supply  of  some  4og  billions  of 
tons  against  England's  189  billions  and  France's  17 
billions.  And  the  great  French  fuel  area  of  which 
Lens  is  the  centre  is  also  in  German  hands.  Broadly 
speaking,  France  (and  Belgium)  is  as  dependent  on 
German  fuel  as  Germany  is  on  French  ore.  The 
French  have  said  nothing  about  taking  away  from 
Germany  some  great  coal  area  like  the  field  west  of 
the  Rhine  or  east  of  the  Saar,  but  such  a  reply  to  the 
German  demand  for  the  ore-fields  of  Longwy  and 
Briey  is  perfectly  conceivable  and  just,  and  on  the 
assumption  of  any  sort  of  return  to  the  status  quo  ante 
in  international  relations,  would  have  to  be  heeded. 

The  consequences  would  be  the  creation  of  a  Ger- 
man ia  Irredenta,  an  inversion  of  the  roles  of  France 
and  Germany  and  an  overwhelming  new  war  within  a 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        73 

generation.  In  view  of  unimpeachable  German  testi- 
mony concerning  the  will  of  Alsatians  and  Lorrainers, 
no  settlement  could  be  just  which  would  not  return 
these  provinces  to  France.  Rut  if  they  are  returned  to 
France,  as  they  will  be,  neither  would  the  settlement 
be  just  that  shut  off  the  German  people  from  their 
access  to  iron  ore.  Some  basis  of  exchange  of  ore  for 
fuel  would  have  to  be  arranged  to  equalize  the  distribu- 
tion of  these  two  fundamentals  as  between  France  and 
Germany. 

Rut  a  similar  inequality  of  distribution,  not  only 
with  respect  to  iron  and  coal,  but  also  with  respect  to 
all  metals,  with  respect  to  wool,  cotton,  and  grain,  is 
to  be  found  everywhere.  Of  everything  there  is  too 
much  in  one  place  and  not  enough  in  another.  Trade 
is  the  enterprise  of  equalizing  this  distribution,  but  as 
it  has  developed,  it  has  substituted  for  the  inequalities 
of  the  accidents  of  nature,  the  inequalities  of  the  greed 
and  injustices  of  men.  As  now  in  war,  so  in  times  of 
peace,  the  subcommissions  on  metals,  fuels  and  textiles 
would,  to  prevent  this,  take  charge  of  the  national 
surpluses  of  these  materials  and  arrange  for  their 
distribution  on  a  just  and  equitable  basis.  They 
would  coordinate  and  direct  the  investigations  looking 
to  an  increase  of  the  supply  and  to  the  creation  of 
substitutes.  They  would  aid  in  opening  up  new  and 
unused  areas  of  the  world's  surface.  The  International 
Food  Commission,  for  example,  through  its  committee 
on  cereals,  would  strive  to  keep  the  balance  between 
industrial  wants  and  agricultural  supplies.  It  would 
absorb  David  Lubin's  International  Institute  of  Agricul- 
ture, it  would  study  the  soils  of  Egypt,  Asia  Minor, 
Central  Africa,  it  would  experiment  in  grain-growing 


74  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

and  initiate  large  enterprises  in  hitherto  unused  areas. 
With  power  to  regulate  the  distribution  of  national 
surpluses  it  would  be  able  to  correlate  destination  with 
transportation,  eliminating  waste  and  reducing  costs, 
and  would  be  able  to  prevent  famine  by  anticipatory 
measures  of  distribution.  All  this  it  would  be  able  to 
do  without  interfering  in  the  national  economy  of  any 
state  hi  the  League  of  Nations  or  out.  It,  and  the 
other  subcommissions,  would  simply  be  doing  in  an 
intelligent,  orderly  and  provident  way,  what  is  tradi- 
tionally done  blindly  and  confusedly.  Unhappily, 
when  it  is  done  blindly  and  confusedly  what  happens  is 
attributed  to  "economic  law,"  but  when  the  same 
processes  are  carried  out  with  intelligent  regard  for 
their  conditions  and  consequences  it  is  called  "govern- 
mental interference."  The  processes  are  the  same  in 
both  instances,  and  they  express  the  same  "law." 
The  difference  is  merely  that  in  one  case  the  result  is 
left  to  accident,  to  grow  like  wild  grain,  while  in  the 
other  it  is  under  control,  is  cultivated  into  the  forms 
that  are  best  suited  to  the  needs  of  man.  The  sub- 
commissions  on  metals,  textiles  and  fuel  would  simply 
restrict  "economic  law"  to  operate  in  ways  best  suited 
to  the  needs  of  men. 

THE  COMMISSION  ON  INTERNATIONAL  WAYS 

The  International  Commission  on  Airways 

The  airplane  is  a  very  new  device,  not  yet  incor- 
porated into  the  transportation  systems  of  nations. 
Its  greatest  development  has  come  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  and  this  development  has  been  military. 
That  peace  will  see  an  attempt  to  put  the  military 
gains  in  airplane  construction  and  use  to  commercial 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       75 

advantage  is  a  foregone  conclusion.  Now  the  air  is  a 
relatively  dark  and  still  unexplored  highway  and  air- 
traffic  has  yet  to  begin.  There  exist  no  national  vested 
interests  in  air-traffic.  There  is  nothing  to  "protect," 
nothing  to  compromise.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
possibilities  of  international  conflict  over  airplane 
movements  are  indefinitely  numerous,  as  the  existence 
of  voluntary  international  organization  to  consider 
air-law,  etc.,  attest.  "Air  routes  that  air  transport 
will  follow,"  writes  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  "must  go  over  a 
certain  amount  of  land,  for  this  reason,  that  every  few 
hundred  miles  at  the  longest  the  machine  must  come 
down  for  petrol.  A  flying  machine  with  a  safe  non-stop 
range  of  1600  miles  is  still  a  long  way  off.  It  may 
indeed  be  permanently  impracticable  because  there 
seems  to  be  an  upward  limit  to  the  size  of  an  aeroplane 
engine.  And  now  will  the  reader  take  the  map  of  the 
world  and  study  the  air  routes  from  London  to  the 
rest  of  the  Empire?  He  will  find  them  perplexing  — 
if  he  wants  them  to  be  'All  Red.'  Happily  this  is  not 
a  British  difficulty  only.  Will  he  next  study  the  air 
routes  from  Paris  to  the  rest  of  the  French  possessions? 
And,  finally,  will  he  study  the  air  routes  of  Germany  to 
anywhere?  The  Germans  are  as  badly  off  as  any 
people.  But  we  are  all  badly  off.  So  far  as  world 
air  transit  goes  any  country  can,  if  it  chooses,  choke 
any  adjacent  country.  Directly  any  trade  difficulty 
breaks  out,  any  country  can  bring  a  vexatious  cam- 
paign against  its  neighbor's  air  traffic.  It  can  oblige 
it  to  alight  at  the  frontier,  to  follow  prescribed  routes, 
to  land  at  specified  places  on  those  routes  and  undergo 
examinations  that  will  waste  precious  hours."  It  can 
possibly  forbid  traffic  over  its  territory.  It  can  main- 


76  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

tain  an  aerial  police  that  could  not,  because  of  the 
character  of  its  medium,  possibly  avoid  illegal  crossing 
of  alien  borders.  All  this  would  have  to  be  adjusted. 
A  confusion  of  regulations  under  separate  treaties 
would  ensue  and  the  development  of  air  traffic  would 
on  the  one  side  be  choked  by  artificial  political  limita- 
tions and  on  the  other  become  a  fruitful  source  of 
international  trouble.  The  obvious  way  out  is  the 
formation  ab  initio  of  an  international  control.  The 
study  of  the  air  as  a  medium  for  vehicles,  the  map- 
ping of  air  roads,  the  establishment  of  petrol  stations, 
the  policing  of  the  air  and  the  stations,  and  all  the 
other  regulations  of  the  traffic  ought  to  be  a  single 
world-wide  enterprise,  conducted  under  a  single  re- 
sponsible administration.  This  administration  should 
be  the  charge  of  the  International  Commission  on 
Airways. 

If,  in  addition,  aerial  policing  were  the  exclusive 
right  of  the  international  organization  an  independent 
sanction  is  provided  for  it  rich  with  possibilities  of 
secure  international  control. 

The  International  Commission  on  Waterways 

The  duties  of  the  International  Commission  on 
Waterways  should  be  first  of  all  the  maintenance  and 
upkeep  of  these  ways.  It  should  have  in  its  charge  the 
navigable  international  rivers;  the  various  straits  and 
canals  like  Gibraltar,  the  Bosphorus,  Panama,  Suez; 
the  sea  routes.  It  should  be  empowered  to  take  all 
measures  to  keep  them  safe  and  open.  Its  second 
duty  would  be  to  police  them,  to  make  sure  that  the 
international  traffic  regulations,  for  which  it  would  be 
responsible,  are  kept,  and  to  drive  unlicensed  ships 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       77 

from  international  waters.  Its  work  should  be  co- 
ordinate with  that  of  the  other  sub-commissions  of  the 
International  Commerce  Commission  and  should  serve 
the  common  end. 

The  creation  of  such  a  commission  presupposes, 
of  course,  an  international  supervision  of  England's 
control  of  Gibraltar  and  Suez;  of  the  American  control 
of  Panama  and  the  surrender  by  Turkey  of  the  Dar- 
danelles. Under  the  conditions  of  operation  the  ways 
now  policed  by  the  English  and  Americans  are  in  fact 
already  largely  international.  Keeping  the  final  right 
to  close  these  ways  is  merely  insurance  against  an 
oppression  or  danger  which  would  be  possible  if  and 
only  if  the  status  quo  ante  bellum  is  restored.  But 
neither  the  economic  nor  the  political  situation  of  the 
world  after  the  war  makes  this  likely,  while  the  friction 
which  would  arise  from  a  failure  somehow  to  inter- 
nationalize these  ways  would  speedily  lead  to  new 
war.  This  friction  would  derive  from  the  tendency 
to  use  control  of  the  waterways  to  the  economic  ad- 
vantage of  the  controlling  power.  During  the  war, 
the  battle  for  this  control  has  brought  inconceivable 
hardship  upon  neutrals,  altogether  contrary  to  inter- 
national law.  The  naval  power  of  England  being  the 
greater,  England  was  the  worst  offender.  Germany 
has  been  treacherous  and  brutal,  but  on  the  whole 
impotent.  Between  them,  England  and  Germany 
effectively  destroyed  "  the  freedom  of  the  seas."  When 
President  Wilson  declared  "the  freedom  of  the  seas" 
to  be  one  of  the  terms  of  peace,  he  had  in  mind  not 
what  Germany  had  in  mind,  but  what  he  sent  Colonel 
House  to  Europe  to  urge  —  the  security  of  all  shipping 
under  international  law.  So  long  as  one  power  retains 


78  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

control  of  the  world's  waterways  such  security  is 
always  under  potential  menace.  The  law  is  always  in 
danger  of  violation.  The  only  condition  under  which 
a  genuine  "freedom  of  the  seas"  can  be  established 
and  maintained  is  the  condition  of  international  con- 
trol. The  International  Commission  on  Waterways 
and  "the  freedom  of  the  seas"  are  in  effect  synonymous 
terms. 

The  International  Commission  on  Highways 

The  International  Railway  Union  has  an  established 
organization  and  procedure  which  would  be  the  natural 
basis  for  any  expansion  of  function  that  the  sub-com- 
mission on  International  Highways  might  be  authorized 
to  attempt.  Its  method  of  operation  could  obviously 
be  modeled  to  best  advantage  on  some  American 
Public  Utilities  Board,  and  it  should  be  endowed  with 
similar  powers.  Broadly  speaking  these  would  be  to 
hear  and  adjust  disputes,  to  order  changes  for  the 
public  good  and  to  regulate  international  traffic  rates 
over  land  routes,  so  as  to  prevent  discrimination  in 
restraint  of  trade.  Its  existence  would  abolish  the 
need  of  special  commissions  or  special  treatment  for 
such  disputed  highways  as  the  Bagdad  Railway  and 
other  concessionary  creations.  It  would  provide  one 
law  and  one  supreme  authority  for  all  travelers  and 
shippers,  cutting  under  at  a  stroke  the  rich  sources  of 
disputes  which  any  other  form  of  adjustment  would 
be  bound  to  leave  unmodified.  It,  also,  of  course, 
would  be  acting  in  coordination  with  the  other 
sub-commissions  of  the  International  Commerce 
Commission. 
The  three  subcommissions  on  Waterways,  Highways, 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       79 

and  Airways  would  together  form  the  single  Sub- 
commission  or  Committee  on  International  Ways.  The 
three  sub-commissions  sitting  together  would  deal  with 
the  joint  and  interdependent  problems  of  international 
travel  and  transport,  relative  costs,  distribution  and 
regulation  of  traffic,  and  so  on. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION   ON   SHIPPING 

The  character  of  maritime  warfare  has  rendered 
the  procuring,  maintenance,  control  and  utilization 
of  shipping  one  of  the  basic  enterprises  in  the  conduct 
of  the  war.  The  German  submarine  campaign  seri- 
ously discommoded  the  whole  of  the  English  war 
economy  and  so  interfered  with  the  normal  mercan- 
tile activities  of  the  United  States  as  to  force  this 
country  into  war  and  into  a  shipbuilding  program 
based  on  the  needs  of  war.  Behind  this  program  lay 
considerations  of  another  nature  as  well.  The  absorp- 
tion of  Rritish  shipping  in  the  carrying  of  purely  war 
necessities,  the  driving  of  the  German  merchant  ma- 
rine from  the  high  seas  by  the  British  fleet,  created  a 
demand  for  tonnage  which  American  enterprise  has- 
tened to,  and  in  some  measure  did,  supply.  Much  of 
the  trade  between  England  and  the  rest  of  the  world 
and  between  Germany  and  the  rest  of  the  world  was 
diverted  to  the  United  States.  Markets  formerly 
closed  in  effect  to  American  goods  were  opened  in 
South  America  and  in  the  countries  of  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  Oceans.  This  accretion  of  trade  American 
business  was  naturally  eager  to  hold  when  the  war 
should  be  over,  and  holding  it  is  dependent  largely 
on  the  use  and  control  in  America  of  American  bot- 
toms. This  dependence  was  prior  to  and  underlay 


8o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

the  dependence  of  the  efficient  conduct  of  the  war 
on  an  adequate  tonnage.  Thus,  the  act  of  Septem- 
ber 7,  1917,  which  created  the  United  States  Shipping 
Board,  created  it  "for  the  purpose  of  encouraging, 
developing,  and  creating  a  Naval  Auxiliary  and  Naval 
Reserve  and  a  Merchant  Marine  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  with  its 
territories  and  with  foreign  countries;  to  regulate  car- 
riers by  water  in  the  foreign  and  interstate  commerce 
of  the  United  States;  and  for  other  purposes."  The 
necessities  of  war,  however,  soon  diverted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Shipping  Board  from  the  peaceful  devel- 
opment of  the  American  merchant  marine  and  the 
regulation  of  foreign  and  domestic  shipping  to  the 
urgencies  of  making  American  war-power  effective  in 
France  and  of  aiding  our  co-belh'gerents  to  maintain 
and  enhance  then-  own  effectiveness.  Its  domain 
applied  to  everything  connected  with  ships  —  making 
them,  taking  them,  buying  them;  running  them, 
loading  them  and  deciding  where  they  should  go  with 
their  loads.  Each  one  of  these  functions  had  its  own 
ramifications.  Making  ships  involved  the  creation  of 
manufacturing  agencies  like  the  Emergency  Fleet  Cor- 
poration, the  finding  and  construction  of  shipyards, 
the  provision  of  adequate  machinery  and  raw  ma- 
terial, whether  wood  or  iron  or  concrete,  the  securing 
and  care  and  housing  and  education  of  the  necessary 
labor-force,  and  so  on.  Making  ships  involved  creat- 
ing instrumentalities  for  all  these  functions.  So  did 
running  and  manning  them.  Commissions  and  Com- 
mittees and  Boards  had  to  be  provided  to  assign  ship- 
ping to  governmental  agencies  other  than  the  Ship- 
ping Board,  to  allied  governments,  and  to  private 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       81 

operating  companies.  A  Shipping  Control  Committee 
had  to  be  provided  to  allocate  tonnage  to  cargoes  and 
trade-routes,  and  a  Ship  Chartering  Committee  to  con- 
trol the  charters  both  of  unrequisitioned  American 
and  neutral  vessels.  Vessels,  again,  had  to  be  supplied, 
repaired,  altered,  salvaged,  and  for  these  functions 
means  and  instruments  had  also  to  be  created.  Then 
freight  rates,  interstate  and  foreign,  had  to  be  regu- 
lated. The  wages,  conditions  and  hours  of  labor  for 
officers  and  men  for  work  on  ships  and  ashore  had 
to  be  established  and  regulated.  This  need  brought 
into  being  the  National  Adjustment  Commissidn,  the 
Shipbuilding  Labor  Adjustment  Board  and  other  agen- 
cies. Loading  ships,  once  more,  particularly  wartime 
loading  under  conditions  of  submarine  warfare,  re- 
quired a  very  detailed  program  of  import  restrictions, 
a  program  worked  out  by  the  Division  of  Planning 
and  Statistics.  And  as  shipping  is  very  dependent 
for  its  utility  on  the  proper  harborage  and  terminal 
facilities,  the  Shipping  Board  had  to  create  its  Port 
Facilities  Commission.  To  insure  its  vessels  against 
maritime  and  war-risks  it  created  an  Insurance  Com- 
mittee; and  to  get  all  the  men  it  needed,  to  train  them 
and  to  organize  them  for  service,  it  provided  its  Re- 
cruiting Service.  For  the  record  of  all  its  operations, 
again  it  had  to  install  an  extensive  disbursing  and 
auditing  and  law  staff.  And  finally,  to  keep  the 
citizenry  of  the  country  informed  as  to  the  needs, 
value,  and  importance  of  the  problem  of  tonnage 
and  of  the  methods  used  to  solve  it,  the  Board  created 
a  Bureau  of  Information  and  a  Publicity  Service. 

In  sum,  the  Shipping  Board  has  developed  in  a 
period  of  less  than  a  year  institutions  and  instrumen- 


82  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

talities  involving  directly  the  life  and  the  labor  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  at  home  and 
the  welfare  of  whole  nations  abroad.  It  is  a  national 
organization,  a  department  of  government  having  a 
magnitude  possessed  by  no  other  agency  equally  avail- 
able for  peace  and  war.  Among  our  co-belligerents 
there  are,  of  course,  parallel  organizations,  like,  e.g. 
the  British  Ministry  of  Marine,  under  various  names. 
It  is  clear  that  as  an  agency  for  the  carrying  out  of 
plans  of  economic  warfare  and  financial  imperialism, 
there  are  very  few  administrative  boards  or  ministries 
with  equal  qualities  of  aptness  and  adequacy. 

The  war,  however,  which  has  compelled  this  enor- 
mous and  rapid  expansion  of  the  operations  of  the 
Shipping  Board  has  also  compelled  coordinately  the 
internationalization  of  its  action  and  control.  This 
internationalization,  one  is  proud  and  happy  to  set 
down,  is  itself  the  direct  consequence  of  the  efforts 
of  the  Board,  sensitive  and  responding  swiftly  to  the 
pressure  of  war  needs  for  a  unified  control.  It  had, 
independently,  begun  controlling  shipping  in  1917, 
through  the  agency  of  its  Division  of  Operations. 
Little  by  little  this  control  was  integrated  with  others 
among  the  allied  governments,  until  on  February  n, 
1918,  it  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a  Shipping  Control 
Committee,  of  three  men,  of  whom  one  represents  the 
British  Ministry  of  Shipping.  The  Shipping  Control 
Committee  is  the  agent  both  of  the  War  Department 
and  the  Shipping  Board.  As  the  agent  of  the  War 
Department  it  is  completely  responsible  for  maintain- 
ing, manning,  supplying  and  operating  the  vessels 
assigned  to  carry  cargo  for  the  Army.  As  the  agent 
of  the  Shipping  Board  it  allocates  to  all  vessels  that 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       83 

come  under  the  Board's  jurisdiction  cargoes  and  trade- 
routes.  Its  allocations  are  made  on  the  principles  of 
priority,  economy  of  tonnage  and  efficiency  of  trans- 
portation. Its  operations  applied  on  September  3o, 
1918,  to  a  fleet  of  i,356  vessels  of  17,22^,862  deadweight 
tons.  On  the  basis  of  information  furnished  by  its 
various  departments  as  to  needs,  priorities,  and  so  on, 
the  Division  of  Trades  and  Allocations  assigns  through 
its  subdivisions  the  amount  of  tonnage  for  this  or  that 
material  or  this  or  that  country.  In  war-time,  stress 
has,  of  course,  to  be  laid  on  military  necessities  like 
manganese  and  tungsten,  rubber,  wool,  nitrates.  Em- 
phasis would  fall  on  such  fundamentals  in  hardly  a 
lesser  degree  during  peace  times:  for  industrial  so- 
ciety is  basically  dependent  on  metals,  fuel  and  food. 

The  other,  and  perhaps  more  significant  aspect  of 
the  internationalization  of  the  control  of  shipping,  is 
the  integration  of  the  work  of  the  Shipping  Board, 
under  the  pressure  of  war  needs,  with  the  shipping 
controls  of  our  co-belligerents  in  the  Allied  Maritime 
Transport  Council.  This  council  was  created  at  the 
Paris  Conference  in  December,  1917.  It  added  to 
the  economy  of  allocation  the  economy  of  elimina- 
tion of  competitive  bidding  for  ships  and  goods  among 
the  Allies,  It  began  its  work  in  London,  February 
1 5,  1918,  but  was  not  permanently  organized  until 
three  weeks  later,  on  March  n. 

"The  purpose  of  the  council,"  it  was  then  declared, 
"is  to  supervise  the  general  conduct  of  allied  transport 
in  order  to  obtain  the  most  effective  use  of  tonnage 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  while  leaving  each 
nation  responsible  for  the  management  of  the  tonnage 
under  its  control.  With  this  object  the  council  will 


84  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

secure  the  necessary  exchange  of  information  and  will 
coordinate  the  policy  and  action  of  the  four  Govern- 
ments—  France,  Italy,  the  United  States,  and  Great 
Britain  —  in  adjusting  their  program  of  imports  to 
the  carrying  capacity  of  the  available  allied  tonnage 
(having  regard  to  naval  and  military  requirements) 
and  in  making  the  most  advantageous  allocation  and 
disposition  of  such  tonnage  in  accordance  with  the 
urgency  of  war  needs. 

"The  council  will  have  at  its  service  a  permanent 
organization,  consisting  of  four  sections  (French,  Ital- 
ian, American  and  British),  the  head  of  the  British 
section  being  secretary  to  the  council.  The  council 
will  obtain  through  its  permanent  staff  the  programs 
of  the  import  requirements  for  each  of  the  main  classes 
of  essential  imports,  and  full  statements  regarding  the 
tonnage  available  to  the  respective  Governments. 
It  will  examine  the  import  programs  in  relation  to  the 
carrying  power  of  the  available  tonnage  to  ascertain 
the  extent  of  any  deficit,  and  will  consider  the  means 
whereby  such  a  deficit  may  be  met,  whether  by  a  re- 
duction of  the  import  programs,  by  the  acquisition, 
if  practicable,  of  further  tonnage  for  importing  work, 
or  by  the  more  economical  and  cooperative  use  of 
tonnage  already  available. 

"The  members  of  the  council  will  report  to  their 
Governments  with  a  view  to  securing  that  the  decis- 
ions and  action  required  to  give  effect  to  any  recom- 
mendations made  by  the  council  are  taken  in  then- 
respective  countries." 

The  policy  of  the  council  governs  the  Allies,  but  is 
technically  only  advisory  to  America.  The  Shipping 
Board's  Division  of  Planning  and  Statistics  furnishes 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       85 

it  information  and  its  policies  are  deferred  to  by  the 
Board's  controlling  agencies,  but  are  not  coercive. 
When,  in  June,  1918,  the  Allies  finally  agreed  to  form 
program  committees  to  coordinate  supplies  and  require- 
ments, the  reports  of  these  committees  to  go  to  the 
Allied  Maritime  Transport  Council,  which  is  thus 
definitely  informed  as  to  the  extent  and  character  of  its 
task,  an  embryo  international  commerce  commission 
was  in  fact  established.  That  the  organization  is  not 
completer  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  United  States  is 
not  an  ally,  but  only  a  co-belligerent.  The  American 
Section  of  the  Transport  Council  has  an  independent 
existence.  It  maintains  constant  communication  with 
Washington  and  its  policies  are  guided  from  there. 

There  are  thus,  in  shipping,  two  international  or- 
ganizations, the  American-British  Shipping  Control 
Committee  and  the  Allied  Maritime  Transport  Coun- 
cil. Their  functions  in  some  degree  overlap,  and 
might  conceivably  conflict.  The  duality  derives,  first, 
from  the  somewhat  detached  position  of  the  United 
States  in  the  war  against  Germany  and  secondly, 
from  the  maritime  commercial  situation  in  force  when 
we  entered  the  war.  We  had  after  generations  at- 
tained a  position  of  mercantile  maritime  advantage. 
We  had  attained  it  through  the  circumstance  of  war, 
at  the  expense  of  England  and  of  Germany.  That 
both  these  countries,  particularly  the  former,  will 
seek  and  will  be  able  to  weight  a  redress  of  the  balance 
of  trade  after  the  peace  is  natural  and  to  be  expected. 
What  is  the  American  attitude  and  position  to  be? 
Assume  that  it  is  to  be  the  normal  thing  —  the  thing 
the  ordinary  "business  man"  and  "banker"  is  habitu- 
ated to.  We  shall  then  seek  to  hold  the  commercial 


86  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

and  maritime  advantage  we  have  gained,  regardless. 
We  shall  quarrel  over  shipping  at  the  peace  table.  We 
shall  gain  the  immediate  enmity  of  England,  and  con- 
sequently of  France,  for  whose  rentiers  and  investors 
and  politicians  business  is  business,  and  does  not  get 
mixed  up  either  with  gratitude  or  sentiment  any  more 
than  the  roast  does  with  hors  cTceuvre.  Then,  to  defend 
our  advantage,  if  we  succeed  in  keeping  it,  we  shall 
have  to  endanger  and  perhaps  even  refuse  or  render 
impotent  the  much-desired  League  of  Nations.  We 
shall  have  to  create  an  enormous  navy,  to  establish 
a  universal  military  service  and  a  standing  army. 
TJiis  would  undoubtedly  be  dictated  by  our  national 
honor  and  would  gladden  the  hearts  of  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  Senator  Lodge. 

The  alternative  program  would  be  completely  to 
abolish  our  aloofness.  To  demand  the  maximum  of  in- 
tegration and  expansion  of  the  Allied  Maritime  Council. 
To  demand  the  representation  of  every  ship-owning 
country  in  the  world  in  the  council.  To  convert  into 
an  International  Shipping  Commission  which  shall 
function  for  the  world  as  the  Shipping  Board  and  the 
British  Shipping  Ministry  function  for  their  respec- 
tive countries.  If  we  do  this,  we  may  have  to  divide 
some  of  the  spoils,  but  we  shall  keep  more  than  we 
share,  and  we  shall  save  the  cost  of  a  terrible  military 
establishment  and  retain  the  friendship  and  coopera- 
tion of  our  co-belligerents.  The  commercial  and 
maritime  situation  clearly  indicates  an  International 
Commission  on  Shipping  as  an  integral  part  of  the  In- 
ternational Commerce  Commission.  It  indicates  in  a 
word,  the  League  of  Nations,  among  the  members  of 
which  differential  freight-rates  and  other  forms  of  dis- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        87 

crimination  in  restraint  of  international  trade  will  be 
felonies. 


DIAGRAM   OF   THE    MOVEMENT    OP    RAW    MATERIALS,    FOODS, 

FUEL,  ETC.,  UNDER  CONTROL  OP  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

COMMERCE  COMMISSION. 


Explanation  of  Diagram.  According  to  the  proposal  for  the  con- 
stitution of  the  International  Commerce  Commission,  the  war-practice 
of  nations  in  buying  up  or  otherwise  regulating  the  distribution  of  raw 
material  is  to  be  continued.  All  surplus,  (i),  usually  exported  in  a 
haphazard  way,  is  to  be  put  under  the  control  of  (2),  the  appropriate 
subcommissions  and  committees  of  the  International  Commerce  Com- 
mission. This  sits  as  a  whole,  (3),  passing  on  the  requests,  (r),  of  the 
various  governments  and  business  organizations  of  the  world,  (5),  for 
these  goods  and  authorizing  their  distribution  by  notice  of  license  to 
the  subcommissions  on  Communications,  (4).  The  other  functions  of 
the  commission,  such,  e.g.,  as  developing  resources  and  finding  sub- 
stitutes, are  not  indicated. 


88  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  Commission  on  International  Communications 

The  Commission  on  International  Communications 
has  its  foundation  in  the  already  existing  International 
Postals  and  Telegraph  Unions.  Its  business  would 
be  to  coordinate  these  unions,  to  make  them  completer 
and  to  increase  their  efficacy  in  the  execution  of  their 
functions  and  to  cooperate  with  the  other  subcom- 
missions  of  the  International  Commerce  Commission 
in  the  execution  of  theirs. 

THE   INTERNATIONAL  FINANCE   COMMISSION 

Behind  the  operations  of  the  powers  in  Asia,  Africa, 
and  the  Balkans,  there  exists  a  financial  unity  not 
expressed  in  political  organization.  We  hear  occa- 
sionally of  the  "money  trust"  and  "invisible  govern- 
ment." Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  we  have  heard 
of  meetings  of  international  financiers  —  German, 
Austro-Hungarian,  Russian,  French,  and  English  - 
frightened  by  the  democratic  tendencies  set  free  by 
the  war,  and  eager  to  find  a  settlement  that  will  pre- 
serve intact  their  privileges.  We  have  been  made 
familiar  with  the  attribution  of  sinister  motives  to 
Lord  Lansdowne's  plea  for  peace,  and  we  have  the 
statement  of  some  of  the  most  humane  and  liberal 
men  in  England  that  his  motives  are  sinister.  But 
there  is  very  little  real  public  knowledge  of  the  con- 
nection between  the  old  feudal  land-owning  aristocracy 
he  represents  and  the  banking  powers  whose  interests 
in  conflict  have  developed  into  the  war,  now  designed 
by  democracy  to  destroy  the  power  of  those  interests 
to  make  war. 

The  connection  is  on  the  whole  very  simple.  Prior 
to  the  industrial  revolution  the  wealth  of  the  richest 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       89 

feudal  baron  was  limited  by  the  value  of  his  lands,  and 
increase  in  wealth  meant  increase  in  land.  There 
was  an  upper  limit  set  by  the  extent,  fertility,  and 
variety  of  his  holdings  and  a  lower  limit  by  the  capacity 
of  the  tenant  to  pay  rent.  The  country  was  country- 
side. Cities  were  comparatively  few  and  small,  were 
religious  and  political  capitals  rather  than  industrial 
and  commercial  centres.  The  industrial  revolution 
changed  all  this.  By  its  tools  for  the  intensive  handling 
of  the  land,  by  its  effect  on  the  growth  of  cities,  by  its 
use  of  hitherto  idle  natural  powers  of  coal,  iron,  water, 
tin  and  so  on,  it  enormously  enhanced  the  value  of 
ground  rents.  The  feudal  baron  received  the  first 
profits  from  the  industrial  change  through  rents  and 
royalties.  Finding  himself  with  far  more  money 
than  he  could  spend,  he  invested  it  in  the  enterprises 
of  the  manufacturer  and  trader  and  thus  added  to  his 
primary  profit  as  landlord  the  second  and  even  greater 
profit  of  the  entrepreneur  and  investor.  So  long  as 
he  was  able  to  do  this,  at  the  very  large  original  profits, 
the  wealth  of  his  home  country  increased  and  its 
industry  expanded,  regardless  of  the  effect  of  this 
increase  and  expansion  on  the  masses  of  the  population. 
This  was  particularly  the  case  in  England,  where  the 
industrial  revolution  received  a  great  initial  start. 
At  first  excesses  were  restrained  by  the  sharp  competi- 
tion of  ever  new  undertakers  in  the  same  field.  But 
as  more  and  more  identical  capitalists  invested  their 
money  in  different  enterprises,  combinations  took 
place.  Syndicates  and  monopolies  absorbed  or  crushed 
competitors.  The  administration  of  business,  instead 
of  being  as  heretofore  direct  and  personal,  became 
vicarious  and  impersonal.  Investors  ceased  to  be 


go  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

managers  in  control  of  their  own  affairs.  They  became 
stockholders  living  on  dividends,  and  accumulating 
an  ever-growing  surplus.  The  further  investment  of 
this  surplus  in  home  enterprises  was  prevented  by  the 
operation  of  the  so-called  principle  of  diminishing 
returns.  Labor  became  restive  under  the  terrible 
exploitation  it  was  undergoing  and  organized.  The 
law-making  power  was  forced  to  take  cognizance  of 
the  situation  and  passed  labor  laws.  The  raising  of 
wages  and  improvement  of  conditions,  extorted  by 
compulsion,  tended  to  diminish  profits.  Capital  the 
world  over,  instead  of  being  invested  directly,  was 
committed  to  banks  for  investment;  and  banks, 
seeking  the  largest  profits  for  themselves,  aimed  to 
invest  this  capital  in  loans,  concessions  and  other 
things  abroad  that  would  bring  them  the  largest  com- 
missions and  rakeoffs,  and  their  clients  a  somewhat 
higher  income  than,  at  a  fixed  rate  of  interest,  they 
could  get  at  home.  In  Egypt,  for  example,  a  labor 
day  lasts  from  12  to  i5  hours.  The  wages  are  six- 
pence to  a  shilling  a  day  for  adults  and  sixpence  for 
children.  The  difference  between  this  and  the  cost  of 
English  labor  represents  a  clear  profit  to  the  investor. 
Again,  in  the  matter  of  interest  and  commissions,  the 
Khedive  of  Egypt  borrowed  82  million  pounds  at  7  % 
with  i  %  for  amortization.  The  banks  gave  him, 
however,  only  20,700,000  pounds,  keeping  the  larger 
part  of  the  balance  as  security  and  returning  him  the 
rest  in  his  own  notes  for  9  million  pounds  which  they 
had  bought  at  65.  He  paid  interest,  of  course,  on  the 
whole  82  millions  while  the  banks  paid  their  own  clients 
interest  only  on  what  they  had  invested  at  a  much 
lower  rate.  Once  more,  in  1904,  the  young  Sultan  of 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       91 

Morocco  borrowed  from  French  banks  10  millions. 
They  took  a  commission  of  2,5oo,ooo  but  charged 
interest  on  the  whole  10  million.  When  he  was  forced 
to  issue  bonds  for  a  new  unnecessary  loan,  the  banks 
took  them  at  435  but  sold  them  to  the  French  public 
at  607  francs,  pocketing  the  difference.  The  Sultan 
paid  interest  at  par.  And  still  again,  the  German 
banks  that  financed  the  Bagdad  Railway  got  100 
million  marks  clear  profit.  In  addition  they  cut 
down  the  price  of  construction  by  180  million  marks, 
which  they  put  into  their  own  pockets,  the  Turkish 
government  being  required  to  pay  on  the  basis  of  the 
original  contract  estimates. 

Clearly  the  largest  profits  went  in  these  cases  to  the 
banks.  To  operate,  they  had  to  concentrate  the 
savings  of  both  large  and  small  depositors  and  in- 
vestors. Great  banking  firms  thus  were  led  to  establish 
branches  at  home  and  abroad,  to  absorb  small  banks 
or  destroy  them,  and  to  come  to  agreements  with 
rivals.  The  centralization  and  monopoly  of  money 
power  took  the  same  course  as  the  centralization  and 
monopoly  of  industrial  powers.  Amsterdam,  Berlin, 
Frankfort,  London,  New  York,  Paris,  Vienna,  became 
the  great  money  centres  of  the  world.  Trade  in 
money,  technically  called  exchange,  became  an  enor- 
mous and  all-powerful  business,  the  manipulation  of 
which  controls  the  work  of  the  whole  world.  All  the 
great  banks  are  international  in  their  operations  and 
the  world's  business  is  theirs  — to  float  securities  and 
promote  investments;  to  get  loans,  concessions,  trade 
monopolies,  particularly  in  undeveloped  countries 
where  labor  is  cheap  and  government  is  weak.  They 
are  constantly  taking  money  out  of  the  home  countries, 


92  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

whose  investing  classes  live  on  the  interest  earned 
abroad  no  matter  how,  whose  laboring  classes  starve 
and  grow  increasingly  restless,  while  the  activities  and 
life  of  the  home  countries  stagnate.  There  was  the 
fire  behind  the  smoke  of  the  German  charge  that  both 
England  and  France  were  degenerate.  England  was 
the  foremost  creditor  country  of  the  world.  She  had 
20  billion  pounds  of  foreign  investments.  The  misery 
and  squalor  of  her  masses  was  only  to  be  measured  by 
the  ease  and  superiority  of  her  classes.  The  money  of 
those  being  in  foreign  lands,  her  politicians  were 
absorbed  mainly  in  foreign  affairs.  Only  just  before 
the  war  had  they  begun  to  turn  their  attention  to  the 
home  population,  to  the  stagnation  of  industry,  the 
cheapness  and  inadequacy  of  education,  the  terrible 
misery  of  her  workingmen.  France  was  second  to 
England  as  creditor  country.  She  had  8  billions  in 
foreign  investments.  Her  masses,  thanks  to  the  foyer, 
the  family  system,  and  to  the  equitable  distribution  of 
the  land,  were  better  off  than  the  English  masses,  but 
her  population  was  stationary  and  her  industries,  roads, 
and  internal  organization  were  backward.  Germany, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  only  in  recent  times  begun  to 
export  capital.  She  had  a  foreign  investment  of  about 
5  billion  dollars.  This  investment  was  made  possible 
entirely  by  dint  of  the  intensive  industrial  and  social 
development  of  the  country.  Thus,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war  Germany  was  at  her  industrial  maximum, 
a  strong  and  feared  rival  of  England's  and  as  an 
investor  a  very  swift  runner-up  against  France.  In 
this  respect  the  United  States  was  like  Germany - 
a  great  debtor  country,  most  concerned  in  the  develop- 
ment of  her  own  resources.  The  Monroe  Doctrine 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL       98 

kept  the  European  financial  octopus  from  strangling 
the  republics  of  South  America;  and  American  banking 
laws,  coupled  with  the  refusal  of  the  government  to 
insure  private  investments  abroad  with  the  arms  and 
blood  of  the  citizens  at  home,  kept  the  surplus  capital 
of  America  from  wandering  too  far  afield  for  the  good 
of  the  state.  Only  during  the  Taft  administration  did 
a  question  of  foreign  investments  become  an  important 
political  question.  This  was  the  famous  participation 
by  the  Morgans  in  the  notorious  six-power  loan  to 
China,  fortunately  prevented  by  President  Wilson. 
Another  danger  arose  over  the  demand  by  investors 
for  intervention  in  Mexico,  a  danger  also  averted  by 
President  Wilson's  courage  and  wisdom. 

It  will  be  seen  that,  on  the  record,  the  affairs  of  the 
world  are  in  the  actual  control  of  an  international 
money  power  which  is  capable  at  will  to  create  money 
stringency,  causing  panics  and  business  disorganiza- 
tion, to  raise  and  depress  money  values  artificially, 
and  by  its  control  over  the  foreign  policies  of  states, 
to  bring  on  wars. 

"In  one  great  modern  state  in  particular,"  writes 
W.  M.  Fullerton,  in  Problems  of  Power,  "the  French 
Republic,  eight  or  nine  gigantic  establishments  of 
credit  have  formed  a  veritable  trust,  which  has  tended 
to  kill  the  minor  banks,  and  by  whetting  the  French 
middle  class  distrust  of  modern  democratic  social- 
legislation,  has  cultivated  the  prejudice  that  French 
securities  are  unsafe,  and  thereby  so  monopolized  the 
employment  of  the  public  wealth  that  France  may  be 
said  without  exaggeration  to  be  virtually  a  financial 
monarchy.  The  apathy  of  the  French  parliament  as 
regards  the  construction  of  great  public  works,  such  as 


g4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

modern  ports  and  canals,  is  often  cited  as  one  of  the 
main  causes  of  the  relative  industrial  backwardness  of 
France,  and  of  the  increasing  invasion  of  French 
territory  by  enterprising  German,  Belgian,  or  Swiss 
capitalists.  A  more  potent  cause  assuredly  is  the  fact 
that  a  large  proportion  of  French  savings  is  systemati- 
cally exported  abroad,  on  the  pretext  of  assisting  needy 
foreign  states,  while  affording  safe  investments  to  the 
French  'rentier'  but,  hi  reality,  with  the  object  of 
securing  monstrous  profits  which  benefit  only  the 
banks  in  question,  a  few  intermediaries,  and  a  certain 
section  of  the  press,  and  with  the  result  of  developing 
the  wealth  and  the  defensive  force  of  rival  peoples, 
favoring  the  depopulation  of  France,  and  preparing 
the  gravest  complications  for  that  country  in  case  of  a 
European  war."  The  whole  "defeatist"  propaganda 
in  France  is  an  aspect  of  these  "gravest  complications." 
Concerning  Germany  and  the  rest  of  the  world, 
David  Starr  Jordan  writes  in  the  World's  Work  for 
July,  19 13:  "In  Germany  we  may  fairly  regard  the 
Emperor  as  the  centre  of  a  gigantic  mutual  investment 
organization,  with  its  three  branches  of  aristocracy, 
militarism,  and  finance;  all  the  powers  of  the  state, 
military  as  well  as  diplomatic,  being  placed  at  the 
service  of  the  combined  interests.  In  so  far  as  other 
nations  are  powers,  the  fact  is  due  to  the  influence  of 
similar  interlocking  combinations.  This  is  certainly 
true  in  England,  France,  and  Russia,  and  the  dollar 
diplomacy  of  the  United  States,  now  happily  past, 
was  based  on  the  same  fundamental  principle.  ...  In 
Europe  the  governments  everywhere  frankly  make 
open  cause  with  the  interests.  The  foreign  offices  are, 
therefore,  for  the  most  part,  little  more  than  firm 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        g5 

names  under  which  these  interlocking  syndicates  trans- 
act their  foreign  business.  ...  A  large  percentage  of 
the  international  troubles  of  the  world  arise  from  this 
one  source,  the  use  of  governmental  authority  to 
promote  private  schemes  of  spoilation." 

The  remedy  for  this  condition  is  obvious.  What 
moves  the  banker  is  his  enormous  profits.  The  oppor- 
tunity to  make  these  at  the  expense  both  of  the  foreign 
power  and  home  investor  must  be  removed,  while  the 
legitimate  functions  of  the  banker,  to  concentrate 
capital  and  to  make  it  swiftly  and  easily  available, 
must  be  secured  and  regulated.  By  putting  the 
control  of  loans,  concessions,  etc.,  in  the  hands  of  the 
International  Commission  on  Undeveloped  Countries, 
the  first  end  is  secured.  China  or  Persia  will  not  be 
able  to  float  a  loan  without  the  license  of  this  Com- 
mission whose  business  it  is  to  safeguard  the  interests 
of  such  countries.  To  attain  the  other  end,  the  useful 
concentration  of  money,  will  be  a  duty  of  The  Inter- 
national Finance  Commission.  Licensed  by  the  first 
Commission,  any  one  of  these  countries  will  then  ap- 
peal to  the  second.  The  second  will  announce  the  con- 
ditions of  the  loan,  the  terms  of  interest,  its  duration 
and  security,  to  the  whole  investing  world.  It  will  re- 
ceive bids  from  all  investors,  regardless  of  nationality 
or  financial  power.  It  will  have  power  to  market 
bonds  if  necessary.  Its  own  charges  or  commissions 
will  cover  only  the  cost  of  the  operation,  and  it  will 
regulate  the  commissions  and  fees  of  the  banks.  In 
this  way  it  will  effect  a  great  saving  both  for  the 
borrowing  country  and  the  lenders.  The  amount  saved 
ought  to  go  toward  a  universal  standardization  of 
wages. 


g6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

Its  other,  and  perhaps  prior,  function  would  be  to 
regulate  the  money-market,  to  standardize  exchange 
and  credit  and  to  prevent  depression,  panics  and 
disorganization.  To  do  this  it  would  need  to  become 
custodian  of  the  international  gold-reserve  and  to 
organize  an  agency  like  the  American  Federal  Reserve 
Board.  Financiers  have  realized  this  need  some  time 
ago.  "European  financiers,"  writes  the  American 
Exchange  National  Bank  in  its  September  letter, 
"have  watched  and  studied  the  operations  of  our 
Federal  Reserve  system  more  closely  than  have  Ameri- 
cans. English  and  French  bankers  have  had  long 
experience  with  central  banks  of  discount  backed  by 
their  Governments,  and  are  therefore  capable  of 
judging  the  merits  of  our  system.  They  have  seen 
how  our  Federal  Reserve  Banks,  advised  by  the 
Federal  Reserve  Board,  have  stabilized  our  banking 
system  and  prevented  panics  and  stringency  in  Ameri- 
can money  markets  under  the  most  trying  conditions 
created  by  the  outbreak  of  war  in  igi/i- 

"While  the  United  States  is  sailing  on  an  even  keel 
as  far  as  its  finances  are  concerned,  great  confusion 
prevails  in  most  other  countries,  which  is  evidenced 
by  the  excessive  premiums  and  discounts  prevailing 
in  markets  for  foreign  exchange.  These  inequalities 
will  not  be  easily  removed  at  the  end  of  the  war, 
because  so  many  countries  are  practically  bare  of 
gold,  while  the  United  States  holds  more  than  its 
share  of  the  world's  supply.  One  of  the  great  problems 
of  the  near  future  is  how  to  prevent  the  existing  stock 
of  gold  from  being  scattered  and  thereby  deprived  of 
usefulness  for  reserve  purposes. 

"Taking  our  Federal  Reserve  system  as  a  guide,  the 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        97 

suggestion  has  been  made  in  Europe  that  an  Inter- 
national Reserve  Board  be  created  by  the  allied 
countries  to  stabilize  international  currency  and  ex- 
change. This  Board  would  regulate  the  issue  of 
international  gold  notes  which  should  be  legal  tender 
at  face  value  for  all  payments  in  the  allied  countries 
and  in  others  that  entered  the  circle.  In  this  way 
most  of  the  world's  stock  of  gold  could  be  conserved 
for  reserve  purposes. 

"It  will  be  remembered  that  many  financial  lights 
of  that  day  predicted  that  the  United  States  Treasury 
would  be  drained  of  gold  when  specie  payments  were 
resumed  on  January  2,  1879.  When  the  day  came 
the  predicted  line  did  not  stand  waiting  for  the  doors 
of  the  New  York  Sub-Treasury  to  open.  Nobody 
wanted  gold  when  paper  was  just  as  valuable  and 
much  more  convenient.  So  it  would  be  with  inter- 
national gold  notes,  if  confidence  in  them  could  be 
inspired." 

As  the  function  of  stabilizing  international  credit  is 
distinct  from  that  of  foreign  investment,  the  Inter- 
national Finance  Commission  would  best  be  divided 
into  two  subcommissions,  one  on  Political  Loans  and 
Investments  and  one  on  the  Stabilization  of  Credit. 


THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION   ON   ARMAMENTS 

Armaments  have  been  held,  and  by  many  persons 
still  are  held,  as  the  chief  guardians  of  national  security, 
and  the  agitation  in  America  for  universal  military 
service  and  colossal  arming  has  grown  in  intensity 
from  the  beginning  of  the  European  war.  This  war 
has  given  an  enormous  impetus  to  the  American 


g8  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

munition  makers.  Their  profits  run  into  billions,  and 
the  profits  of  great  banking  firms  like  the  Morgans, 
who  lent  the  Allies  money  to  buy  the  stuff  the  munition 
makers  make,  have  been  correspondingly  great.  Beth- 
lehem Steel,  Midvale  Steel,  General  Electric,  duPont 
Powder,  Westinghouse  Electric  and  American  Locomo- 
tive Companies,  centrally  controlled  by  a  few  great 
banking  powers,  have  made  most  of  the  blood  money. 
Since  America's  own  entry  into  the  war  their  profits 
have  been  curtailed,  but  they  have  been  expanding 
their  plants,  multiplying  their  stockholders  and  spread- 
ing their  investments.  As  Congressman  Clyde  H. 
Ta vernier  has  shown,1  many  of  their  stockholders  and 
directors  are  members  of  the  National  Security  League 
and  the  Navy  League,  and  of  all  the  other  agencies 
who  identify  patriotism  with  preparedness  and  for 
whom  preparedness  is  a  source  of  profit.  They  are 
denouncing  as  unAmerican  all  people  who  do  not 
agree  with  them  and  all  legislators  who  voted  otherwise 
than  they  thought  proper.  Much  of  the  war  sentiment 
of  the  country  is  with  them,  and  when  the  war  is  over, 
if  they  have  their  way,  the  United  States  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  will  be  saddled  with  the 
burden  of  an  enormous  military  program,  and  the  rest 
of  the  game  whose  watchword  here  is  "dollar  diplo- 
macy." 

Are  they  right?  Is  it  true  that  in  armament  lies 
security? 

On  the  contrary,  every  candid  examination  of  the 
history  of  Europe  prior  to  the  war  must  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  armament  provokes  insecurity. 

1  Speech,  House,  February  i5,  igi5,  "The  World  Wide  War  Trust." 
Speech,  House,  December  i5,  191 5:  "The  Navy  League  Unmasked." 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL        99 

Neither  the  United  States  nor  Canada  was  armed, 
yet  the  two  countries  maintained  peace  for  over  a 
hundred  years,  in  spite  of  disputes  that  in  armed 
Europe  would  have  brought  on  war. 

The  status  quo  ante  has  been  a  condition  of  insecurity, 
largely  through  arming,  for  armament  is  bound  up 
with  the  competition  in  arming,  and  with  the  imperial- 
ism of  the  financiers.  The  growth  of  armaments  is 
coincident  with  the  export  of  capital  into  backward 
and  undeveloped  countries,  the  guaranteeing  of  private 
loans  by  public  force,  the  attempt  to  establish  trade 
and  production  monopolies,  with  their  implication  for 
governments  of  spheres  of  influence,  protectorates, 
colonies.  England  being  the  first  of  the  great  European 
countries  to  acquire  a  large  surplus  capital,  it  showed 
itself  first  in  England,  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
decades  of  the  last  century.  When,  in  i884,  England 
was  appropriating  only  Egypt,  her  naval  expenditures 
were  between  20  and  3o  million  pounds.  When  she 
had  absorbed  South  and  Central  Africa,  parts  of 
China,  of  Persia,  and  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean, 
her  naval  expenditure  had  risen  to  nearly  80  million 
pounds.  Part  of  this  expenditure  was  defensive.  The 
navy  was  not  only  to  guard  the  monopolies  of  the 
English  feudal  capitalist,  it  was  also  to  offset  the 
challenge  to  that  monopoly  on  the  part  of  Germany, 
whose  naval  expenditures,  rising  with  the  development 
of  her  colonial  program  and  her  foolish  concern  about 
"a  place  in  the  sun"  grew  from  nearly  18  million  in 
1888  to  io5  million  between  1908-18.  The  total 
expenditures  of  the  six  great  powers  in  the  decade 
between  1908  and  1918  rose  from  890  to  720  millions 
for  navies  and  from  n35  to  1190  millions  for  armies, 


ioo  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

These  powers,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  were  never  in 
danger  from  each  other  at  home.  They  were  in 
danger  from  each  other  in  Turkey,  in  Morocco,  in 
Tunis,  in  China,  and  perhaps  in  Alsace-Lorraine. 
"Preparedness"  was  not  really  preparedness  for 
defense.  It  was  preparedness  for  aggression  and 
competition  for  the  monopoly  of  the  exploitation  of 
weak  states.  To  go  on  with  it,  after  the  war,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  meet  the  cost  of  the  war  is,  according 
to  Professor  Walther  Lotz  (Norddeutsche  Allgemeine 
Zeitung  —  in  an  article  commenting  on  Earl  Grey's 
proposal  for  a  League  of  Nations  and  quoted  in  the 
New  York  Times  of  August  5,  1918),  impossible  for  the 
financial  power  of  any  people.  It  would  mean  bank- 
ruptcy. The  armament  situation  itself,  then,  con- 
sidered simply  in  relation  to  post-war  burdens  requires 
international  treatment  and  international  agreement. 

But  there  are  other  considerations  which  make  this 
even  more  necessary.  By  and  large,  the  manufacture 
of  munitions  is  a  private  and  uncontrolled  industry. 
Its  business  is  to  produce  and  to  sell  as  much  as  it 
can  for  all  that  the  traffic  will  bear.  It  if  overproduces 
it  must  find  or  create  new  markets  and  increase  the 
will  to  buy  of  the  old  ones.  It  cannot,  if  it  is  to  grow 
and  prosper,  regard  either  the  interests  of  a  country 
or  the  peace  of  the  world.  Hence  all  its  operations 
are  in  their  very  nature  of  necessity  a  deadly  menace 
to  both.  In  a  more  sinister  way  than  financial  mag- 
nates, munition-makers  have  become  organized,  simply 
in  consequence  of  the  nature  of  their  business,  into  one 
of  the  world's  most  powerful  international  industrial 
corporations.  Their  customers  vary  from  petty  African 
or  Afghan  chieftains,  to  whom  they  sell  antiquated 


ARGUMENT  ON  THfe  PROTOCOL      i6i 

left-overs  of  guns  and  munitions  at  the  price  of  the 
best  contemporary  type,  to  civilized  and  responsible 
governments  whom  they  must  persuade  to  buy  largely 
and  generously.  As  their  stockholders  and  directors 
are  of  the  upper  and  governing  classes,  this  is  not 
difficult  where  a  government  is  irresponsible.  Where, 
however,  a  credit  has  to  be  voted  by  a  popular  assembly, 
other  methods  must  be  used,  methods  effective  by  the 
manipulation  of  the  public  press  and  the  agencies  of 
rumor.  Then,  lest  profits  be  reduced  by  the  competi- 
tion of  different  companies,  these  are  organized  on  the 
basis  of  (i)  trade  agreements,  (2)  price  agreements, 
(3)  the  division  of  selling  territory,  (4)  the  ownership 
of  patents,  (5)  the  collusive  use  of  devices  to  create 
unpreparedness  scares  and  to  sell  arms. 

For  the  international  character  of  their  control  and 
operation  look  at  the  Nobel  Dynamite  Trust.  The 
Krupps  and  the  Dillinghams  of  Germany  own  7462 
of  its  shares;  seven  munitions  corporations  in  England 
own  10,000  and  more;  a  similar  amount  is  owned 
together,  by  two  Italian  and  two  French  firms;  Bethle- 
hem Steel,  of  the  United  States,  own  43oi  shares. 
The  profits  go  to  these  people,  regardless  of  who  is 
hurt.  Or  again,  consider  the  Harvey  Steel  Company. 
Its  British  charter  empowers  it  to  incorporate  or 
control  four  other  companies  holding  the  Harvey 
patents  for  treating  steel.  It  is  also  the  licenser  of  the 
Krupp  and  Charpy  processes  of  hardening  armor. 
Its  profits  were  handsome  —  and  not  distributed  to 
Englishmen  alone.  But  it  became  a  scandal,  and  in 
July,  1912,  wound  up  its  affairs  —  formally:  Standard 
Oil  also  wound  up  its  affairs.  Yet  again:  in  igi3  a 
short  time  before  the  war  and  fully  aware  of  the 


102  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

prepotency  of  Germany  in  Turkey,  Armstrong- 
Vickers  actually  undertook  to  reorganize  the  Turkish 
naval  docks,  while  somewhat  earlier  the  German 
Krupps  and  the  French  Schneiders  (Creusot)  united 
to  develop  the  iron  ore  fields  in  Algeria.  The  arrange- 
ment was  broken  only  by  the  insistence  of  French 
public  opinion.  The  British  Arms  Trust  has  two 
subsidiary  companies  in  Italy,  others  in  Spain,  Portu- 
gal, and  Japan.  French,  British,  Belgian,  American, 
and  German  firms  rebuilt  the  Russian  navy.  French- 
men owned  preferred  stock  in  the  steel  plate  works  in 
Dollingen,  Germany. 

For  examples  of  the  profiteering  of  munitions- 
makers,  even  in  peace  times,  one  need  go  no  farther 
abroad  than  home.  The  American  Armor  Plate 
Syndicate  sold  Russia  armor  plate  at  $2^9  per  ton. 
The  United  States  could  not  get  it  at  less  than  $5i6. 
It  ought  to  be  said  that  the  low  price  to  Russia  was 
protested  by  other  manufacturers.  The  protest  led 
to  a  conference  in  Paris  and  that  to  an  international 
price  agreement  on  armor  plate.  This  was  in  1898. 
Three  years  later  the  price  was  lower  to  the  United 
States  and  from  1896  to  1914  the  government  bought 
plate  from  the  trust  at  $44o  per  ton.  But,  according 
to  the  report  of  the  present  chief  of  Ordnance,  Rear 
Admiral  Strauss,  it  was  making  the  same  plate  in  a 
factory  of  only  20,000  tons'  capacity  at  $229  per  ton. 
For  powder  which  it  makes  in  its  own  factories  at  36 
cents  per  pound,  the  government  paid  in  seven  years 
prices  varying  from  53  to  80  cents.  For  3 1  second  combi- 
nation fuses  which  it  makes  at  $2.92  it  paid  $7.00,  and 
for  4-7  inch  shrapnels  which  it  was  making  at  the 
arsenal  in  Frankford  at  $i5.45  each,  it  paid  in  191 3 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      io3 

$26.26  each,  for  a  lot  of  seven  thousand.  Secretary 
Daniels  has  been  the  butt  of  every  kept  newspaper  in 
the  country.  The  reason  is,  he  conscientiously  tried 
to  eliminate  from  the  navy  profiteering  by  munition 
makers.  To  cite  just  one  example:  the  Syndicate 
quoted  him  $4go  each  for  a  certain  projectile;  when 
he  asked  for  a  bid  from  a  certain  English  firm,  the 
Syndicate's  price  came  down  to  $826.  The  war,  which, 
before  we  joined  it,  ended  English  competition,  brought 
the  Syndicate's  price  up  $100. 

For  examples  of  the  bribery  of  officials,  the  debauch- 
ing of  newspapers  at  home  and  abroad,  the  creation  of 
war  scares,  we  need  only  refer  to  Dr.  Liebknecht's 
exposure  of  the  operations  of  the  Krupps  in  Germany 
and  in  France  and  to  the  Mulliner  scare  in  England  in 
1909.  All  such  operations  are  organized  on  the  basis 
of  making  private  profits  from  wars. 

Internationalism,  patrioteering,  profiteering,  bribery, 
are  not  the  only  counts  against  the  armament  makers. 
It  is  against  them  that  there  exists  no  agency  for  con- 
trolling them.  As  their  operations  involve  the 
"defense"  of  the  nation,  they  are  secret.  The  war 
office  stays  mum  and  questions  are  met  with  silence 
"for  the  good  of  the  country,"  with  the  consequence 
that  prices  and  sales  conditions  are  what  the  munitions- 
makers  choose  they  should  be.  It  is  against  them 
that  the  stock  in  their  companies  is  owned  by  rulers  — 
officials,  journalists,  members  of  parliaments  and 
diplomats.  Such  ownership  by  people  in  public  places 
makes  the  purchase  of  armament  a  public  policy  from 
which  the  owners  reap  great  private  advantage.  An 
investigation  of  the  English  Vickers  Company  showed 
its  stock  to  be  held  by  3i3  members  of  parliament  or 


io4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

their  connections  —  2  dukes,  2  marquises,  5o  earls, 
10  baronets,  20  knights,  20  military  and  naval  officers, 
3  financiers,  8  owners  of  newspapers  and  journalists. 
It  is  against  them  that  they  make  and  promote  foreign 
connections  and  loans  in  order  to  increase  the  sale  of 
munitions.  A  portion  of  the  1918  five-power  loan  to 
China  was  carried  by  Austrian  and  German  arms 
manufacturers.  They  paid  her  a  part  of  the  loan  in 
torpedo  boats  and  made  two  profits.  But  what  use 
had  China  for  torpedo  boats?  It  is  against  the  muni- 
tions-makers that  they  create  war  scares,  that  they  cause 
the  scrapping  of  expensive  armor  by  all  nations  through 
inducing  one  nation  to  buy  new  armor,  that  they  debauch 
the  public  press,  that  they  debauch  members  of  govern- 
ments by  means  of  their  lobby,  that  they  foment  intrigues 
among  weaker  peoples  in  order  to  increase  their  sales, 
that  they  munition  savage  warfare,  that  they  arm  slave 
traders.  English  firms  have  sold  Afghans  arms  that 
they  knew  were  to  be  turned  against  the  soldiers  of 
their  own  country.  German  firms  have  supplied 
Arabs  and  other  dealers  in  human  flesh  with  arms  for 
defense  against  gun-boats  of  their  own  country.  There 
is  no  traffic  so  iniquitous,  none  so  dangerous  to  the 
peace  of  the  world,  as  this  which  makes  its  profits  out 
of  war  and  the  engines  of  war.  International,  a 
monopoly,  secret,  with  great  power  in  high  places, 
the  munitions  trade  shares  with  finance  the  imperium 
of  mankind.1  If  the  liquor  traffic  is  antihuman,  how 
infinitely  more,  this. 

What  is  to  be  done  about  it?    The  first  and  in- 
dispensable thing  is  to  expropriate  the  private  owners. 

1  For  a  full  account  of  the  operations  of  armorers,  cf.  G.  H.  Ferris, 
"The  War  Traders." 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      io5 

The  manufacture  of  munitions  must  become  a  national 
monopoly  and  every  state  must  maintain  its  ministry 
of  munitions,  in  complete  possession  and  control  of 
all  the  armor  plate,  gun,  explosive  and  projectile 
factories  of  the  land.  The  accounts  of  this  ministry 
must  be  open  to  pubh'c  inspection  and  an  accounting 
must  be  publicly  rendered  to  the  popular  assembly 
once  every  six  months,  both  of  the  munitions  produced 
and  the  cost  of  production.  This  arrangement  will 
abolish  the  evils  that  come  from  the  private  traffic  in 
tools  of  war.  It  will  destroy  its  internationalism,  its 
monopoly,  its  secrecy,  its  profiteering,  its  power  to 
influence  government.  It  will  not,  of  course,  destroy 
the  international  menace  of  competitive  armament 
nor  the  chances  of  unfair  advantage  of  one  state  over 
another. 

To  attain  the  destruction  of  the  latter  the  Inter- 
national Council  must  have  power  to  limit  the  budget 
of  any  constituent  state  in  the  League  of  Nations  for 
armament.  There  must  be  an  International  Com- 
mission on  Armaments  which  shall  be  charged  with 

1.  The  supervision  and  inspection  of  all  aspects  of 
the  production  and  distribution  of  armaments  by  the 
states  in  the  League. 

2.  The  checking  up  and  publication  for  international 
purposes  of  all  records  and  accounts. 

3.  The  custodianship  and  control  of  all  military 
inventions. 

The  effect  of  the  limitation  of  expenditure,  inter- 
national publicity  and  international  control  of  military 
inventions  would  be  the  general  recession  of  the  military 
idea  from  the  life  of  nations.  Aggressions  such  as 
Germany's  would  become  automatically  impossible, 


io6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

for  even  when  made  with  the  purest  motives,  it  would 
lack  the  sole  conditions  on  which  it  could  count  for 
success  —  a  superiority,  at  least  initially,  in  armament. 
Had  the  German  government  counted  on  anything 
but  a  short  war  it  would  have  waged  no  war. 

THE   INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION   ON   CENTRAL 
AFRICA 

The  quarrels  between  European  powers  over  the 
African  colonies  are  among  the  most  inexplicable  in 
history.  Neither  the  necessity  for  raw  materials  nor 
the  hope  of  trade  nor  the  need  of  soil  for  overflowing 
population  justify  them  as  part  of  national  policy. 
People  will  not  emigrate  to  these  dependencies.  Thus, 
after  seventy  years  of  domination  and  an  expenditure 
of  seven  billion  dollars  there  are  only  364, ooo  French- 
men in  Algeria  and  the  control  is  still  military.  In 
Tunis,  after  an  occupation  of  thirty  years,  there  are 
only  2^,000  Frenchmen  and  83,ooo  Italians.  To  the 
German  colonies  only  696  of  269,^1  persons  went  as 
settlers,  in  spite  of  all  the  inducements  to  settlement 
which  the  German  government  offered.  The  migra- 
tion of  peoples  and  the  colonization  of  lands  is,  as 
anybody  who  chooses  to  study  the  history  of  migra- 
tions may  see,  altogether  independent  of  so-called  vital 
interests  of  states  and  political  loyalties.  It  is  not  for 
nothing  that  more  nationals  of  all  kinds  have  in  the 
last  fifty  years  immigrated  into  the  United  States 
than  into  all  the  colonies  of  all  the  European  countries 
put  together.  As  for  trade  —  it  is  enough  to  note 
that  the  imports  and  exports  between  Germany  and 
her  colonies,  1888-1906,  is  80,000,000  marks  less  than 
the  value  of  the  annual  bill  of  goods  she  sent  to  Switzer- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      107 

land  only.  The  interests  of  trade  are  international, 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  customer  determines  his 
buying  power  and  his  buying  power  determines  the 
development  of  trade.  Eight  billion  of  the  nine 
billion  of  German  imports  in  1910  came  from  America, 
Europe,  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  and  England 
herself,  with  all  the  variety  of  her  possessions,  gets  only 
one  fifth  of  her  imports  from  her  dependencies,  both  of 
raw  materials  and  of  finished  products.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  national  economy  colonies  are  an 
unprofitable  investment.  Their  defense  requires  an 
altogether  disproportionate  increase  in  armament, 
their  exploitation  has  created  a  policy  of  preferential 
tariffs,  of  trade  discriminations  and  of  the  abuse  of 
native  populations. 

What,  then,  beyond  international  jealousy  and 
childish  emulation,  is  the  sanction  for  the  present  day 
colony-making  appetite?  It  is  the  greed  of  some 
original  trading  firm  of  which  the  British  East  India 
Company  is  a  historic  prototype.  These  firms  grow 
rich  by  exploiting  the  native.  When  they  find  that 
they  have  bitten  off  more  than  they  can  chew,  they 
"pass  the  buck"  to  their  governments.  Thus,  in 
i883,  a  Bremen  trader,  Liideritz,  made  treaties  with 
native  African  chiefs.  His  government  did  not  heed 
his  requests  for  support  until  his  claims  were  disputed 
by  agents  of  the  British  crown.  Then  Bismarck  ended 
negotiations  by  declaring  Liideritz-land  German  terri- 
tory. About  the  same  time  Belgium  secured  the  Congo 
Free  State.  Liideritz  was  followed  by  the  German 
East  African  Trading  Company,  the  German  Trade 
and  Plantation  Company,  and  by  banking  firms  taking 
up  mining  concessions  and  grants  of  land.  As  white 


io8  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

men  could  not  be  won  to  enter  the  country  and  were 
too  expensive  when  they  did  enter  it,  the  enslavement 
of  the  blacks  was  the  foundation  of  the  prosperity  of 
the  companies.  For  example,  the  Hereros  were  first 
expropriated,  then  decimated,  and  the  survivors 
enslaved;  the  Congo  scandals  disgusted  the  world. 
To  keep  this  rich  source  of  wealth  entirely  to  them- 
selves, officials  discriminated  against  subjects  of  other 
states  by  a  great  variety  of  means,  from  libels  to  tariffs, 
and  the  home  governments,  whose  members  usually 
held  large  investments  in  the  exploiting  companies, 
were  expected  to  insure  the  holders  and  their  technique 
with  the  blood  and  treasure  of  the  nation.  But  slave 
labor  and  cheap  labor  everywhere  in  the  world  is  a 
menace  to  the  standards  of  life  for  labor  everywhere. 
Peonage  in  the  iron  mines  of  Morocco,  for  example, 
means  a  cheaper  product  there  and  the  movement  of 
capital  from  France  there,  until  the  returns  on  capital 
in  both  places  have  been  equalized.  It  is  imperative 
for  the  white  labor  of  the  world  to  guard  itself  by 
guarding  the  black,  just  as  it  is  imperative  for  the 
commerce  of  the  world  to  secure  the  prosperity  of  its 
customers  if  it  is  to  do  good  business. 

The  interests  of  both  trade  and  labor,  hence,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  merely  humanitarian  considerations, 
require  a  handling  of  Central  Africa  entirely  different 
from  the  traditional  one.  Certainly  the  German 
colonies,  although  remaining  German  property,  may 
not,  in  the  face  of  the  record,  return  to  German  control; 
nor,  to  keep  things  equal,  should  the  English  or  Portu- 
guese or  Belgian.  The  alternative  is  the  proposal  of 
the  British  Labor  Party  to  pool  them  all  under  an 
International  Commission  for  Central  Africa.  The 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      109 

first  duty  of  this  Commission  should  be  to  protect  the 
blacks.  It  should  prevent  their  enslavement  and  all 
other  forms  of  exploitation,  including  that  which 
consists  in  the  sale  to  them  of  drugs,  guns  and  liquors. 
It  should  undertake  sanitation  and  education,  teaching 
them  new  and  real  needs  which  civilized  countries 
might  supply,  particularly  in  agricultural  implements 
and  textiles,  and  endowing  them  with  the  power  to 
earn  the  price  of  those  things.  It  should  maintain 
the  "open  door"  to  all  nations,  and  should  facilitate 
the  opening  up  of  the  country.  But  first,  last  and 
always  it  should  work  on  the  principle  that  it  can  serve 
the  interests  of  the  world  best  by  securing  the  freedom, 
well-being  and  prosperity  of  the  blacks.  For  the 
freedom,  well-being  and  prosperity  of  the  blacks  will 
save  white  labor  from  the  dangerous  competition  of 
the  cheaper  black,  and  provide  the  white  manufacturer 
with  a  great  and  hitherto  undeveloped  market  for 
staple  goods. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION   ON   UNDEVELOPED 
COUNTRIES 

Certain  countries,  ostensibly  sovereign  and  self- 
governing,  are  in  fact  weak,  incompetent,  and  under 
the  control  of  one  or  more  powers,  or  the  victims  of 
the  rivalry  of  those  powers  for  such  control.  Their 
natural  resources,  often  very  rich,  are  undeveloped, 
their  people  are  barbarous,  superstitious,  ignorant  and 
overburdened  with  taxes,  and  their  governments  are 
usually  very  weak  and  corrupt.  Such  countries  are 
Turkey,  Morocco,  Egypt,  Algeria,  Tunis,  Persia, 
Korea,  China,  Mexico,  Samoa,  Siam.  These,  European 
governments,  acting  upon  the  pressure  of  great  financial 


no  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

interests  who  first  lend  them  money  to  be  secured  by 
concessions,  turn  first  into  spheres  of  influence,  then 
into  protectorates,  finally  into  colonies.  Such  has 
been  the  fate  of  Algeria,  Tunis,  Morocco,  Korea, 
Egypt.  Such,  but  for  the  wisdom  of  President  Wilson, 
might  have  been  the  fate  of  Mexico;  and  such,  unless 
a  new  order  is  established,  is  bound  to  be  the  fate  of 
Turkey,  China,  and  Persia.  There  has  been  a  relent- 
less and  cunning  rivalry  between  the  European  powers 
over  the  exclusive  domination  of  these  countries. 
They  wanted  them  for  the  investment  of  surplus 
capital,  since  the  cheap  labor  they  supplied  made 
higher  profits  for  the  investor,  and  the  commissions  of 
the  banker  were  very  much  greater.  They  wanted 
them  for  the  exclusive  privilege  of  lending  money  to, 
interest  on  foreign  loans  being  higher  than  on  domestic, 
and  the  banker  receiving  at  least  two  profits,  one  as 
his  commission,  the  other  as  the  difference  between 
the  buying  and  the  selling  price  of  the  bonds.  As  a 
rule,  however,  he  gets  many  more,  operating  con- 
cessions, promoting  railways,  etc.  The  banker's  or 
promoter's  appropriation  to  himself  of  an  enormous 
sum  for  what  he  calls  the  "Know  How,"  in  the  case  of 
the  Hog  Island  shipyards,  is  an  invariable  phenomenon 
in  international  finance.  The  powers  wanted  the 
undeveloped  countries  as  markets  for  home-made  goods. 
They  sought  to  establish  in  them  monopolies  of  trade. 
The  consequence  was  that  the  economic  rivalry  com- 
pelled a  political  and  military  rivalry,  for  the  foreign 
policies  of  states  are  determined  first  of  all  by  their 
foreign  investments.  All  the  powers  scrambled  to  make 
monopolies  for  these,  to  establish  exclusive  investing, 
lending,  and  trading  privileges.  Regarding  every  one 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      in 

of  the  countries  mentioned,  they  set  up  counter 
claims,  and  made  agreements  equalizing  their  "oppor- 
tunities," which  they  immediately  tried  to  break. 

Take  Morocco,  for  example.  There  had  been  a 
conference  in  1880  in  which  Germany  had  participated. 
That  conference  established  a  Convention  declaring 
for  equal  treatment  of  all  countries  in  trade  with 
Morocco.  In  1890  Germany  and  Morocco  made  a 
commercial  treaty  which  secured  Germany  the  same 
treatment  as  the  most  favored  nations.  As  a  result 
she  got  governmental  concessions  for  the  Krupps  and 
the  Mannesmanns  in  the  iron  mines,  in  harbor  improve- 
ments and  so  on.  This  suited  neither  the  French  nor 
the  English.  The  English  interest  in  keeping  the  way 
to  India  unblocked  required  an  "independent" 
Morocco.  The  French  regarded  the  expansion  of 
German  enterprise  there  as  a  menace  to  their  invest- 
ments. Morocco  became  more  than  ever  the  subject 
matter  of  diplomatic  intrigue.  Finally  the  Sultan  of 
Morocco  invited  the  powers  to  a  conference  to  be  held 
at  Algeciras.  This  was  in  1906.  There,  the  mutual 
rivalries  resulted  in  a  Convention  assuring  Morocco 
her  territorial  integrity  and  political  independence. 
But  this  was  entirely  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the 
French  bankers,  who  had  hoped,  after  England  had  in 
1908  recognized  French  paramountcy  in  Morocco,  to 
get  that  country  turned  into  a  protectorate.  So 
France  began,  with  English  backing,  to  exceed  her 
powers,  particularly  the  police  powers  conceded  her 
by  Spain.  This  made  of  the  Algeciras  Convention  a 
scrap  of  paper,  of  the  Sultan  of  Morocco  a  heavy  debtor 
to  French  bankers,  and  of  the  Moroccan  customs 
houses  French  pawns.  The  money  borrowed  from 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

France  was  spent  on  tremendous  commissions  to 
French  bankers,  on  waste  and  extravagance  by  the 
Sultan,  and  on  munitions  made  by  French  munition- 
makers.  It  gave  France  economic  control  of  Morocco. 
She  began  military  control  by  invading  the  country 
in  1907  on  the  pretext  of  punishing  the  murder  of  some 
Frenchman  in  an  obscure  inland  town.  Her  army 
occupied  Udga,  just  over  the  Algerian  boundaries,  and 
stayed  there,  in  spite  of  many  promises  to  evacuate. 
A  fracas  between  whites  and  natives  in  Casablanca  led 
to  the  bombardment,  occupation  and  "policing"  of 
that  city  and  the  district  surrounding.  Then  France 
called  upon  the  Moroccan  government  to  pay  for  these 
operations  $12,000,000  with  an  additional  sum  for 
losses  to  merchants  through  the  bombardment  of 
Casablanca.  The  Moors  themselves  could  not  stand 
more.  They  rose  in  revolt.  The  Sultan  was  opposed 
by  his  brother,  and  civil  war  followed.  This  became 
the  occasion  for  forcing  a  new  loan  on  the  regular 
Sultan,  Mulai  Hafid.  The  lenders  were  of  many 
nations  but  the  French  dominated.  By  1910  Morocco 
was  owing  Europe  $32,5oo,ooo.  To  secure  the  amount, 
the  remaining  4o  %  of  the  customs,  certain  harbor  dues 
and  the  tobacco  monopoly  were  mortgaged  to  the 
bondholders.  The  expenses  of  government  had  to  be 
met  by  tax  exactions  from  the  already  overburdened 
people.  These  rebelled.  Between  them  and  the  Euro- 
pean financial  octopus  Mulai  was  helpless.  He  ap- 
pealed to  France,  whose  bankers  had  engineered  his 
state,  and  in  April,  1910,  a  French  army  of  3o,ooo 
occupied  Fez,  and  the  French  public  was  fooled  about 
the  need  for  the  occupation.1 

i  Cf.  E.  Morel:  "Ten  Years  of  Secret  Diplomacy." 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      n3 

Thereupon  the  Germans  sent  the  Panther  to  Agadir, 
in  the  interest,  they  claimed,  of  the  Convention  of 
Algeciras,  which  had  assured  the  German  iron  supply. 
Then  the  fat  was  in  the  fire  indeed.  French  "honor" 
could  not  permit  the  French  to  withdraw,  and  England 
stood  with  France.  So  a  new  deal  was  made  by  which 
Germany  got  (1911)  100,000  square  miles  along  the 
Congo  and  Ubangi  rivers.  But  the  Germans  never 
forgot.  And  the  present  war  is  the  price  we  pay  for 
this  juggling  with  international  agreements.  The 
Moroccans  being  a  barbarous  people,  of  another  breed 
than  the  whites  of  Europe,  their  treatment  and  fate 
is  not  so  serious  as  would  be  that  of  Europeans,  the 
invasion  of  then-  territory  is  not  a  breach  of  interna- 
tional law,  and  the  agreement  concerning  its  integrity 
is  truly  a  scrap  of  paper. 

Another  case  is  Persia.  The  government  of  Persia 
has  just  notified  the  neutrals  that  it  repudiates  the 
Russian-English  Convention  of  1907.  It  had,  to 
begin  with,  only  been  forced  to  acknowledge  that 
Convention,  and  the  powers  that  made  it,  made  it 
with  regard  only  to  the  predatory  or  defensive  interests 
they  themselves  were  serving.  The  Czarist  govern- 
ment of  Russia  had  always  wanted  Persia,  and  the 
British  government  had  always  wanted  to  make  sure 
that  no  hostile  power  should  get  access  to  India  via 
the  Persian  Gulf  ports.  For  a  long  time  there  was 
jockeying  for  position.  Finally  the  agreement  of  1907 
was  made,  without  consulting  Persia,  by  which  Russia 
was  not  to  be  interfered  with  by  the  English  in  northern 
Persia,  nor  England  by  the  Russians  in  southern  Persia. 
These  were  the  respective  spheres  of  influence  of  the 
two  powers.  The  internal  affairs  of  the  Persians  and 


n4  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

their  political  independence  and  territorial  integrity 
were  to  be  safeguarded. 

The  Persians,  however,  had  their  own  views.  A 
democratic  and  religious  movement  had  wrested  a 
constitution  from  the  reigning  Shah  in  1906.  A 
counter-revolution  by  his  successor,  abrogating  the 
Mejliss  or  popular  assembly  was  frustrated  by  a 
nationalist  uprising  and  the  forced  abdication  of  the 
Shah.  The  nationalists  were  however  too  inexperi- 
enced in  self-government,  cabinets  behaved  irresponsi- 
bly, ministers  were  corrupt,  the  treasury  was  bankrupt, 
and  the  greatest  creditor  was  Russia  with  her  loan 
guaranteed  by  customs  receipts.  If  ever  a  nation 
needed  and  deserved  proper  guidance  and  just  dealing, 
Persia  did.  The  Russians  would  not  and  therefore 
the  English  could  not,  as  they  fancied,  afford  it,  and 
the  traditions  of  international  honor  and  diplomacy 
compelled  the  other  European  powers  to  be  the  silent 
partners  of  the  raid  on  Persia.  The  Persians  turned 
to  the  complete  outsider,  America,  and  in  spite  of 
Russian  obstruction  secured  the  services  of  Mr.  W. 
Morgan  Shuster  as  treasurer-general.  Mr.  Shuster 
tried  to  organize  the  finances  of  Persia  on  a  basis  that 
would  permit  her  to  meet  the  expenses  of  government 
and  the  interest  on  the  Russian  loan.  This  did  not 
satisfy  Russian  wishes  at  all.  Shuster's  efforts  were 
blocked;  his  staff,  made  up  of  Belgians,  were  incited  to 
insubordination,  and  his  creation  of  a  gendarmerie  and 
appointments  thereto,  opposed.  The  head  of  the 
gendarmerie  was  to  have  been  an  Englishman,  Major 
Stokes,  who  was  prepared  to  give  up  for  that  purpose 
his  post  in  the  Indian  army.  But  the  British  govern- 
ment notified  Shuster  that  Stokes,  being  an  English- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      n5 

man,  could  not  operate  in  the  Russian  sphere  of 
influence.  The  notice  was  tantamount  to  denial  of 
the  independence  of  Persia.  Then  the  Russians  are 
said  to  have  encouraged  the  attempt,  contrary  to  their 
pledges,  of  the  deposed  ex-Shah  to  recover  his  throne, 
thus  straining  the  constitutional  government  of  Persia 
to  the  breaking  point.  His  defeat,  1912,  did  not  stop 
them.  They  seized  the  occasion  of  the  confiscation 
of  the  estate  of  one  of  the  leading  rebels  to  manufacture 
a  quarrel  and  demand  an  apology  which  the  Persians, 
on  the  advice  of  the  English,  made,  but  which  the 
Russians  declared  came  too  late,  a  second  ultimatum 
being  already  on  the  way.  This  demanded  the  dis- 
missal of  Sinister  and  his  assistants,  the  agreement  to 
secure  the  consent  of  the  Russian  and  British  legations 
before  engaging  foreigners  for  the  public  service,  and 
an  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  Russian  troops. 
The  Mejliss  repudiated  the  ultimatum,  but  the  cabinet 
accepted  it  and  the  Mejliss  was  dissolved  by  a  coup 
d'etat  of  the  regent,  December  2/i,  1911.  xThe  seven 
officials  who  then  remained  the  government  were  the 
tools  of  Russia.  England  could  in  all  this  play  only  a 
preventive  part,  Sir  Edward  Grey  declaring  that  to 
have  made  a  definite  agreement  with  Russia  would 
have  meant  a  real  partition  of  Persia.  Shuster  left 
Persia,  and  England  and  Russia  offered  to  keep  the 
ex-Shah  out  of  the  country  on  a  pension  paid  by  the 
Persians,  and  to  provide  a  loan  with  which  to  meet 
the  pension  and  current  expenses, — the  disbursal  of  the 
loan  to  be  supervised  by  the  treasurer-general,  subject 
to  the  approval  of  the  legations  of  the  two  countries. 
In  return  Persia  was  to  recognize  the  Anglo-Russian 
convention  of  1907,  acknowledge  the  rights  of  these 


n6  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

countries  in  their  respective  spheres,  reorganize  her 
armies  to  suit  their  interests,  and  apply  the  British 
part  of  the  loan  to  restoring  the  southern  trade  routes. 
Loan  and  conditions  were  accepted  in  March,  1912. 
From  then  on  concessions  to  both  countries  for  rail- 
roads, mineral  resources  and  so  forth,  followed  each 
other  in  quick  succession,  and  loans  succeeded  con- 
cessions. Russia  garrisoned  the  country  and  its 
finances  were  controlled  from  outside.  The  war  has 
upset  the  situation  thus  established,  both  through  the 
Revolution  in  Russia  and  through  Persian  action. 
But  Persia  is  no  better  off  than  before  the  war.  Her 
condition  and  future  are  a  serious  problem. 

Still  another  instance  is  China.  China  has  for 
many  years  been  the  prey  of  the  trader,  concession- 
seeker  and  financier.  Since  1896,  she  has  been  deprived 
by  Russia,  England,  France  and  Germany  of  Man- 
churia, the  Kwangstun  Peninsula,  Wei-hai-wei,  Kow- 
loon,  Kwang-Chew-wan  and  Kiaochow.  Between 
1898  and  1909  she  has  been  the  disputed  spoils  of 
European  banks  for  loans  and  concessions.  Since 
1909  she  has  been  the  subject  of  exploitation  by  a 
syndicate  of  English,  German,  and  French  banks  who 
act  as  one  in  all  loans  and  railway  matters.  American 
capital  entered  China  with  the  agreement  in  1898  of 
the  China  Development  Company  to  raise  $20,000,000 
for  purposes  of  railway  construction.  J.  P.  Morgan  & 
Co.  became  the  owners  of  more  than  half  the  shares 
of  the  stock  in  this  company.  By  1910,  other  con- 
tractual promises  had  made  it  inevitable  that  the 
company  should  be  admitted  into  the  International 
Syndicate.  After  the  Chinese  revolution,  Japan  and 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      117 

Russia  forced  their  way  in.  Together  these  financiers 
constituted  the  "six-power  group"  for  the  exploitation 
of  China. 

After  the  Revolution,  China's  economic  organization 
was  in  complete  disorder.  She  had  no  money  for  ad- 
ministrative purposes  or  interest  on  loans,  or  indem- 
nities. She  needed  complete  reorganization  and  a  sum 
of  about  $80,000,000  to  effect  the  reorganization  with. 
Now  the  "six-power  group"  had  established  a  total 
monopoly  over  the  borrowing  of  China.  They  had 
agreed  to  act  only  by  common  consent,  and  to  keep 
independent  lenders  out. 

For  her  3o  million  they  insisted,  in  1912,  that  China 
should  take  3oo  million.  The  loan  was  to  be  guar- 
anteed by  the  national  salt  monopoly  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  that  and  the  expenditure  of  the  money  lent 
were  to  be  placed  under  European  control  —  that  is, 
China  was  to  take  the  initial  step  toward  the  surrender 
of  her  political  independence.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  President  Wilson  (1918)  demanded  the  withdrawal 
of  the  American  firm  from  the  Syndicate.  The  Chinese 
government  itself  tried  to  get  money  elsewhere.  It 
did  get  trivial  amounts  from  English  and  German 
houses,  but  the  English  foreign  office  strenuously 
opposed  the  attempt  of  C.  Rirch  Crisp  &  Company,  of 
London,  to  raise  a  Chinese  loan  of  $60,000,000.  These 
efforts  of  the  Chinese  led  the  Syndicate  to  reduce  the 
sum  forced  on  China  to  126  million.  The  conditions 
were  modified  so  that  the  expenditures  were  to  be 
controlled  by  a  Chinese  commission  with  European 
advisers  and  that  the  salt  monopoly  was  to  be  ad- 
ministered by  the  Chinese  government  through  the 
agency  of  a  European  in  its  employ.  On  September 


n8  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

29,  191 3,  Great  Britain  announced  her  withdrawal 
from  the  five-power  group.  But  the  autonomy  and 
future  of  China  still  remains  an  unsettled  question. 
Both  China  and  Persia  are  confronted  with  the  fate  of 
Morocco,  and  the  problems  inherent  in  the  financial 
and  political  condition  of  Turkey  and  Mexico  and 
many  South  American  republics  are  of  the  same  kind. 
The  Bagdad  Railway  and  the  oil  wells  of  Mexico 
present  definitive  items  of  international  interest  in  the 
despoilation  of  undeveloped  peoples  and  lands. 

Turkey's  present  situation  is  especially  intriguing. 

Of  all  the  discordant  undeveloped  countries  which 
have  provoked  Europe  into  a  "  concert "  about  their  fate, 
Turkey  is  the  foremost.  The  large  dominion  which 
the  Turkish  government  held  over  Christians  was  a 
cause,  the  government's  incompetence  was  a  cause,  the 
interests  of  England  on  the  defensive  against  the 
encroaching  interests  of  Germany  and  Russia  were  a 
cause.  The  existence  of  Turkey  compelled  a  kind  of 
internationalism  of  which  "the  balance  of  power" 
was  perhaps  the  happiest  expression.  Turkey  was  the 
"sick  man"  of  Europe  and  Europe  allowed  him  neither 
to  die  nor  to  get  well.  The  reason  lay  in  both  the 
geographical  position  and  the  economic  potentialities 
of  Asiatic  Turkey.  Syria  is  the  link  between  India 
and  Egypt.  A  strong  power  possessing  Syria  would 
be  in  a  position  to  strike  at  either  or  both  of  these 
great  English  dominions.  For  this  reason  the  English 
held  it  necessary  that  the  sovereignty  of  Turkey  should 
not  be  impaired,  and  that  such  interests  as  operated  in 
Syria  should  be  friendly  to  the  English.  When 
Germany  began  to  concern  herself  about  her  "place 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      119 

in  the  sun"  all  the  easily  available  places  outside  of 
Central  Africa  were  already  taken  up.    She  had  to 
crowd  in  where  she  could.    Turkey  was  particularly 
convenient  for  her.    The  investments  of  her  bankers 
in  Turkey  were  the  point  of  departure  for  the  vision 
and  policy  of  Mittel  Europa.    It  being  her  habit  of 
mind  to  convert  historic  accidents  into  intentions  and 
chances  into  programs,  she  developed  these  invest- 
ments into  a  policy  of  friendship  for  Turkey,  —a  friend- 
ship   identical    with    "economic    penetration."    She 
encouraged  both  pan-Islamism  and  pan-Turanianism, 
and  the  Kaiser  proclaimed  himself  protector,  if  not 
commander,  of  the  faithful.    Her  greatest  pickings  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  game  were  the  Bagdad  Railway 
concessions,  made  to  financial  allies  of  the  Deutsche 
Bank.    Because    the    German   government   refrained 
from   participating  in   the  diversion   of  Crete  from 
Turkey,  these  concessions  were  extended  to  Koweit. 
They  carried  with  them  mileage  guarantees  of  about 
five  million  a  year,  a  gift  of  land  extending  12  miles 
on  either  side  of  a  railroad  i5oo  miles  long,  and  harbor 
privileges   at  the  road    termini.    The    road  was  to 
connect  with  Damascus  and  Alexandretta,  and  it  was 
so  laid  out  as  to  keep  it  fairly  safe  from  possible  attack 
by  Russia  from  the  northeast  and  to  make  it  a  menace 
to  Egypt  in  the  northwest.     In  a  word,  though  its 
economic  significance  was  considerable,  its  strategic 
significance  was  far  greater.    Had  the  English  not 
blocked  its  extension  to  the  Persian  gulf  by  means  of 
a  treaty  with  the  Sheikh  of  Koweit,   southeast  of 
Bagdad,  Germany  would  have  been  in  a  position  to 
menace  India  also.    The  English  blockade  was  not, 
however,  the  only  fly  in  this  quintessential  ointment  of 


120  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

Mittel  Europa.  Germany  herself  was  far  from  the 
point  of  domestic  development  which  could  yield  the 
necessary  surplus  of  capital  for  foreign  investment. 
To  carry  out  the  enterprise,  the  German  entrepreneurs 
had  to  use  non-German  capital  and  non-German 
financiers  had  been  insisting  anyhow  on  a  share  in  the 
pickings.  Thus,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  French 
government,  the  French  bankers  put  into  the  road  3o 
to  4o  per  cent  of  the  total  capital  invested.  Indeed, 
Syria  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  field  of  French  invest- 
ment. The  French  government  was  the  protector  of 
the  Christians  of  northern  Syria;  French  missions, 
French  schools,  the  French  language  were  general 
there,  and  French  money  was  plentiful  and  active. 
Between  1901  and  190 5  France  had  invested  in  Turkey 
2  billions  as  against  Germany's  5oo  millions.  The 
difference  was  that  the  French  investments  were  just 
investments  and  not  economic  items  in  a  carefully- 
planned  program  of  military  imperialism. 

The  war  was  made  the  occasion  for  completing  the 
list  of  these  items.  German  capital  acquired  by 
"purchase"  all  the  railroads  in  Asia  Minor  and  carried 
out  much  new  construction.  It  acquired  concessions  of 
the  coal  mines  at  Rodosto,  of  the  copper  mines  at 
Arghana  Maden,  and  innumerable  mining  concessions 
elsewhere.  It  acquired  control  of  the  beet-industry 
and  of  the  irrigation  works  at  Konia.  It  established 
the  first  claim  on  all  foodstuffs.  It  has,  with  the 
connivance  of  the  government,  secured  these  natural 
resources  for  itself  by  bankrupting  Turkey  in  a  financial 
operation  as  smooth  and  as  nefarious  as  any  on  record. 
The  actual  executive  under  the  Turkish  minister  of 
finance  is  a  German.  Under  his  direction  the  ministry 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      121 

has  secured  a  law  which  makes  the  hoarding  of  gold  a 
penal  offense.  It  has  called  in  all  the  bullion  —  gold 
and  silver  and  copper.  It  has  substituted  paper  for 
metal.  In  1916  it  deposited  with  the  controllers  of 
the  Ottoman  National  Debt  German  imperial  bills  of 
£T3o, 000,000  and  issued  German  paper  money  of  like 
amount.  Thus  German  notes  were  put  into  circula- 
tion, redeemable  to  Germany  in  gold,  which  is  the 
standard  currency.  The  German  notes  are  thus 
gold  certificates,  and  must  circulate.  Quite  to  insure 
their  circulation  a  series  of  banks,  agrarian  and  other- 
wise, were  organized  throughout  the  Empire  by  Dr. 
Kautz.  Other  loans  followed  this  one:  a  loan  after 
the  failure  of  the  Gallipoli  campaign,  a  loan  to  pay 
Germans  their  interest,  to  pay  Krupp  for  military 
supplies,  to  pay  other  ironmongers  for  agricultural 
implements  and  so  on.  Also  these  loans  were  made  in 
paper,  and  also  at  par  value.  Rut  as  the  financial 
situation  became  more  stringent  the  paper  was  called 
in  and  deposited  as  guarantee  for  a  fresh  issue  of  paper. 
That  the  values  of  all  the  paper  should  inevitably 
depreciate  was  obvious.  The  Turkish  gold  pound 
soon  became  worth  280  and  more  piastres.  Some 
fifteen  months  ago  Turkey  had  received  from  Germany 
in  the  vicinity  of  726  million  dollars  in  paper  which  she 
was  to  repay  in  gold,  with  interest  of  course,  and  at 
par. 

The  Germans  knew,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  their 
Turkish  agents  who  are  the  government  of  Turkey  did 
not  know,  that  Turkey  could  never  do  this.  The 
arrangement,  if  allowed  to  stand,  puts  the  people  and 
resources  of  Turkey  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Germans,  no  matter  how  the  war  comes  out.  To 


122  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

insure  it  still  further  the  Gennanification  of  the 
Turkish  people  has  been  carried  on  apace.  The 
Turkish  army  is  German-trained  and  German-led. 
The  Turkish  boy-scouts  are  German-trained  and 
German-led.  There  were  German  centres  of  occupation 
with  German  troops  in  separate  barracks  all  over  the 
Empire.  There  was  the  "Pasha  formation"  com- 
manded by  Baron  Kress  von  Kressenstein,  with  Ger- 
man officers,  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates,  all 
in  German  uniforms,  and  not  recorded  among  the  fight- 
ing troops.  The  education  of  the  Turks  is  receiving  a 
German  twist.  The  German  language  has  been  made 
compulsory  in  Turkish  schools.  Germans  are  operating 
in  Constantinople  a  school  for  the  study  of  German 
and  their  government  has  arranged  for  the  trade- 
education  in  Germany  of  thousands  of  Turks.  Law 
has  been  Teutonized,  for  German  legal  reforms  replace 
the  Turkish  Sheriat. 

Now  this  development  contains,  in  and  by  itself, 
little  harm  and  much  good.  What  renders  it  sinister 
and  nefarious  is  the  cold-blooded  betrayal  and  ex- 
ploitation of  an  ally.  The  Germans  are  aware  of  the 
ambitions  and  interests  of  Turkish  nationalism  and 
they  are  aware  that  Mittel  Europa  and  all  its  works 
are  in  explicit  contradiction  to  it.  Their  policy 
appears  to  be  to  use  it  until  it  has  served  their  purpose 
and  then  to  crush  it.  They  have  encouraged  the 
Turks  in  their  dreams  of  Pan-Turanianism,  in  their 
fanciful  Turkish  Irredentism,  in  their  warfare  upon 
Armenians,  Arabs,  Greeks  and  Jews.  Pan-Turanianism 
is  a  hysterical  imitation  of  Pan-Germanism.  Its 
beginnings  were  innocent  enough,  for  its  beginnings 
were  the  political  liberalism  of  French  revolutionary 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      128 

philosophy,  refracted  in  the  minds  of  the  "Young 
Turks"  who  made  up  the  Committee  of  Union  and 
Progress.  Responsibility  seemed  however  to  dis- 
pel the  commonsense  of  that  philosophy;  Ger- 
man infection  has  substituted  for  it  first  pan-Islamism; 
and  the  Balkan  war,  pan-Turanianism.  That  war 
deprived  the  Turks  of  their  dominion  in  Europe. 
Their  future  was  thrown  into  Asia,  and  the  vision 
thereof  was  what  Tekin  Alp,  the  oriental  Jewish 
spokesman  of  the  pan-Turk  movement,  calls  "Turania, 
the  ideal  country  of  the  future."  But  such  a  Turania 
had  to  be  created,  body  and  soul.  The  Osmanli  Turks 
were  in  the  beginning  a  military  horde  conquering  and 
then  misgoverning  an  ancient  area  of  civilization. 
Later  they  developed,  by  the  method  which  created 
the  Janizzaries,  into  a  bastard  stock,  having  little  or 
nothing  in  common  with  the  real  breed  of  Turks  of 
Anatolia.  They  took  everything  from  the  land,  they 
brought  nothing  to  it.  Their  religion,  language  and 
culture  were  acquired  from  the  Arabs  and  other  Mos- 
lems, their  political  system  from  the  ancient  empire  of 
Constantine,  their  dominion  from  a  diversified  people 
among  whom  they  were  a  minority,  and  a  divided 
minority,  for  there  are  at  least  three  distinct  Turkish 
languages  and  ethnic  types.  They  constituted  at  the 
beginning  and  still  constitute  an  armed  camp  amid  an 
alien  population  —  a  population  of  Maronites,  Druses, 
Yemnites,  Jacobite  Christians,  Bedouins,  —  all  called 
"Arabs,"  — Bosniaks,  Pomaks,  Albanians,  Circassians, 
Algerians,  Tripolitans,  Tchetchens,  Kurds,  Greeks, 
Arabs,  Armenians  and  Jews.  The  last  three  types 
are  the  most  progressive  and  economically  and  cultu- 
rally both  dominant  and  promising.  To  destroy  their 


124  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

influence  or  them  would  leave  the  field  free  for  Ger- 
many and  adjust  the  balance  of  population  and  power 
in  the  actual  life  of  Turkey.  Hence  German  encourage- 
ment of  the  "Ottomanization"  of  speech,  literature, 
and  culture  of  the  subject  populations,  and  of  the  whole 
nationalistic  movement  of  which  two  persons  --  Tekin 
Alp  and  Ziya  Bey  —  of  alien  race  are  the  loudest 
voices.  Hence  the  proved  German  connivance  in  the 
planned  extermination  of  non-Turkish  races  —  executed 
upon  the  Armenians  and  only  prevented  by  circum- 
stances from  execution  upon  the  Jews,  Greeks  and 
Arabs.  Would  Germany  stay  her  hand  from  Turks 
when  she  thought  the  time  right? 

It  is  this  record  and  situation  which  underlies 
President  Wilson's  declaration  to  Congress  on  January 
8,  1918,  that  one  of  the  fourteen  conditions  of  peace 
must  be  the  liberation  and  autonomy  of  the  subject- 
peoples  of  Turkey,  but  also  the  equal  freedom  for  self- 
determination  of  the  Turks  themselves.  But  how  is 
this  to  be  achieved,  in  view  of  German  mortgage  upon 
Turkey,  of  the  economic  rivalry  between  Germany 
and  France,  in  Syria?  How  is  this  to  be  achieved  in 
view  of  the  English  occupation  of  Mesopotamia  and 
Palestine?  How  is  it  to  be  achieved  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  unhappy  and  barbarous  Turkish  peasants 
and  nomads  of  Anatolia  are  no  less  the  victims  of  the 
Osmanli  government  then  the  Arabs  and  Greeks  and 
Jews?  How  is  this  to  be  achieved  in  view  of  the 
diversified  racial  stocks  and  rivalries  of  the  subject 
peoples?  Is  Syria  to  be  subdivided  on  the  lines  of  a 
nefarious  secret  treaty  between  the  English  and  the 
French  and  with  perhaps  a  chance  for  the  Germans? 
Are  the  Osmanlis  to  be  permitted  to  exploit  the 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i25 

Anatolian  Turks?    Who  is  to  bear  the  burden  of  pay- 
ing for  the  enormous  German  financial  theft? 

Clearly,  if,  as  President  Wilson  insists,  the  interest 
of  the  peoples  concerned  have  a  prior  claim  on  the 
attention  of  those  who  will  readjust  the  world,  the 
solution  of  the  Turkish  problem  cannot  be  stated  in 
terms  of  the  old  order  at  all. 

Clearly,  the  way  out  of  the  Turkish  as  of  the  other 
problems  is  the  pooling  of  all  the  conflicting  interests 
of  civilized  finance  with  the  interests  of  the  uncivilized 
peoples  on  the  middle  ground  of  justice  and  fair  play. 
It  is  obviously  to  the  interest  of  the  Chinese  and  the 
Ottomans  and  the  Persians  that  their  countries  should 
be  opened  up  and  their  resources  developed.  It  is  to 
the  interest  of  the  peasant  investors  of  France  and 
the  small  capitalists  of  England,  Germany  and  the 
United  States  that  this  should  be  done.  But  it  is  not 
to  their  interest  that  it  should  be  done  on  the  basis 
of  financial  rivalries,  demanding  as  insurance  the 
enormous  armaments  which  eat  up  their  profits  in 
taxes,  in  the  diplomatic  establishments,  demanding 
more  taxes,  and  in  the  recurrent  wars,  which  wipe  out 
their  profits.  It  is  not  to  their  interest  that  the 
development  of  the  homeland  should  become  station- 
ary, which  means  in  effect,  decadent  (as  was  the  case 
with  England  and  France,  prior  to  the  war)  because  it 
could  not  meet  the  competition  of  higher  profits  from 
investment  abroad.  It  is  certainly  not  to  the  interest 
of  European  labor  that  the  higher  profits  should  be 
due  to  the  cheapness  of  life  and  labor  in  China  and  in 
India,  and  that  its  own  advancement  should  be  retarded 
by  the  investment  of  its  fellow  European's  money  in 
the  backwardness  of  Asia  and  Africa.  Nor  can  this 


126  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

backwardness  be  to  the  interest  of  the  trader  whose 
prosperity  varies  directly  with  the  prosperity  of  the 
customer.  The  only  class  that  gains  by  this  situation 
is  the  financial  middleman,  the  banker.  To  the 
investor  whose  money  he  uses  he  pays  only  a  fixed 
and  limited  rate  of  interest.  Commissions,  rebates, 
the  earnings  of  promotion,  the  fruits  of  all  the  devices 
by  which  the  financier  plunders  the  investor,  go  into 
his  own  pockets.  He  pays  least  toward  the  military 
insurance  of  his  operations  and  gets  most  out  of  it. 

Now  an  International  Commission  on  Undeveloped 
Countries  would  secure  the  essentials  of  justice  and 
fair  play.  Its  duties  should  be  to  define  the  principles 
of  financial  operations  and  control  in  such  countries. 
It  should  replace  the  embassies  and  chancellories  of 
the  different  countries  in  the  dealings  of  finance  with 
its  charges.  It  should  be  made  directly  responsible 
to  the  International  Council  for  the  development  of 
the  peoples  and  resources  of  lands  entrusted  to  its 
care.  With  the  utmost  regard  for  the  political  in- 
tegrity and  the  democratic  growth  of  its  charges  in 
self-government,  it  should  fix  rules  for  this  develop- 
ment, establish  rates  of  interests  on  loans,  determine 
their  size  and  limit  profits.  It  should  have  power  to 
license  and  to  revoke  the  license  of  undertakings. 
Each  undertaker  should  deal  with  the  commission  as 
an  individual,  regardless  of  nationality.  Each  should 
have  precisely  the  same  privileges  of  undertaking  as 
any  other  individual,  no  more,  no  less.  Each  should 
have  the  same  obligations.  Toward  the  peoples  and 
governments  of  these  countries,  the  commission  should 
have  every  responsibility  of  protection  and  guidance. 
Its  powers  should  be  extensive  enough  to  embrace  aid 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      127 

in  the  establishment  of  democratic  political  institu- 
tions, modern  education  and  sanitation,  and  all  other 
instrumentalities  which  in  the  course  of  time  would 
enable  the  countries  to  dispense  with  its  guidance. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION"  ON   EDUCATION 

Among  the  many  unprecedented  operations  of  the 
war,  not  the  least  significant  is  propaganda.  Indeed, 
propaganda  has  been  a  fundamental  arm  of  battle. 
Its  existence  and  use  alone  attest  the  spread  of  democ- 
racy, the  importance  that  public  opinion  has  assumed 
in  the  eyes  even  of  those  who  despise  the  masses  of 
men.  For  the  economic  interdependence  of  states 
renders  imperative  the  retention  of  good-will  as  an 
asset  for  peace  times.  And  the  elevation  and  depres- 
sion of  emotion  are  the  foundations  of  morale  on 
which  rest  the  strength  to  fight  and  to  endure  of 
armies  and  states.  Propaganda  is  a  net  cast  for  both 
these  goods.  Beginning  in  Germany,  it  spread  to  the 
whole  world.  Today  there  is  not  an  embattled  country 
which  has  not  its  Bureau  of  Public  Information. 

Now  the  chief  asset  of  propaganda  is  ignorance  and 
its  greatest  effects  come  when  it  is  single  and  without 
rivals.  The  Germans  realized  this  long  before  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  They  taught  at  home  and 
abroad  a  false  history  which  converted  accident  into 
purpose,  climatic  pigmentation  into  racial  superiority 
and  the  afflatus  of  sentimentality  into  the  force  of 
will.  That  self-analysis  and  frank  criticism,  so  diversely 
characteristic  of  the  English  and  the  French  minds, 
they  altogether  lacked.  Nor  did  the  government 
permit  them  to  achieve  it.  The  schools,  the  theatres 
and  the  book  shops  were  dominated  by  an  unreflective 


128  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

self-adulation  of  monstrous  solemnity,1  an  egotism 
cultivated  by  the  government  with  malice  aforethought 
and  its  academic  expressions  rewarded  as  few  humaner 
things.  From  Hegel  to  Houston  Chamberlain  the 
story  was  the  same.  German  government,  German 
Kaiser,  German  philosophy,  German  art,  German 
industry,  German  science,  even  German  aristocracy 
and  German  poetry  were  superlative,  unique.  For 
their  habitation,  which  is  the  Fatherland,  their  en- 
semble, which  is  Kultur,  and  their  incarnation,  which 
is  the  Kaiser,  Germans  must  die  freely  and  gladly. 

The  world  took  all  this  pretty  nearly  at  the  German 
valuation.  Americans  admired,  Englishmen  feared, 
f  here  was  a  core  of  solidity  from  which  trailed  the 
colossal  tail  of  this  comet  of  national  vanity  flaming 
in  the  skies  of  civilization.  But  just  what  it  was, 
how  it  arose,  whether  it  was  durable,  nobody  took  the 
pains  to  examine.  War  shocked  admiration  into  horror 
and  fear  into  combat,  and  opinion  turned  itself  inside 
out,  making  of  the  comet's  tail  of  a  German  ego  a 
thing  as  black  and  foul  as  it  had  been  bright.  But 
again,  very  little  was  done,  nor  under  the  conditions 
of  war,  could  more  than  very  little  be  done,  to  get  at 
the  realities  without  which  opinion  goes  shipwreck. 
The  fight  which  German  propaganda  conducted  against 
the  disgust  and  repulsion  that  German  conduct  had 
aroused  would  have  been  a  losing  fight  even  had  its 
weapon  been  the  truth,  but  with  a  weapon  all  lies, 
what  chance  had  it  save  to  deepen  the  chasm  between 
Germany  and  mankind?  For  a  h'e,  given  time  enough, 
is  self-defeating.  Truth  outlasts  it,  and  sooner  or 

1  Cf.  Archer:  Gems  of  German  Thought.  Bang:  Hurrah  and 
Hallelujah. 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      129 

later  is  found  out.  The  extreme  superiority  that 
English  and  American  propagandas  have  over  German 
is  not  then*  skill  but  their  veracity.  They  have  carried 
conviction  even  in  a  country  where  they  are  so  badly 
handicapped  as  in  Spain  by  the  sheer  weight  of  fact. 

Now  the  creation  of  elaborate  and  costly  agencies 
for  spreading  the  ordinary  information  about  oneself 
during  war  times  argues  a  defect  in  peace-time  educa- 
tion which  is  general  enough.  Had  the  German 
people  not  been  systematically  deceived  by  their 
government  about  themselves  and  their  neighbors, 
had  the  narrow  and  class-limited  education  of  the 
people  of  England,  of  France,  of  the  United  States 
been  more  extensive  in  scope  and  range,  the  ignorance, 
the  misunderstanding,  the  prejudice  and  the  errors  of 
judgment  as  between  these  peoples  might  have  been 
avoided,  and  so,  by  a  very  remote  perhaps,  war 
prevented.  But  the  kind  of  education  that  makes  for 
the  "international  mind"  is  everywhere  the  privilege 
of  a  negligibly  small  number  of  the  upper  class.  Its 
effects  do  not  percolate  from  them  to  the  masses 
or  if  they  do,  get  refracted  out  of  all  proper  perspective 
and  verisimilitude.  To  secure  a  correct  and  wide- 
spread understanding  of  a  neighboring  state,  the 
knowledge  of  that  state's  body  and  soul  must  be 
quickly  acquired  by  a  mass  of  men  and  women  large 
enough  to  infuse  public  opinion  merely  by  being  there. 
,  This  is  what  Rhodes  had  in  mind  in  the  creation  of  the 
totally  inadequate  Rhodes  scholarships.  This  is  what 
underlay,  among  the  guileless,  the  elaboration  of 
exchange  professorships  and  scholarships  between  coun- 
try and  country  in  the  decade  prior  to  the  war.  This 
is  what  has  been  in  process  in  the  arrangements  for 


i3o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

the  exchange  of  pupils  and  teachers  as  between  Germany 
and  Turkey,  and  as  between  France  and  England  and 
the  United  States.  This  is  what  must  underlie  the 
educational  program  of  the  period  of  reconstruction, 
when  the  millions  of  our  young  men  —  of  the  young 
men  of  democracy,  all  ours  —  are  to  be  returned  to  the 
normalities  of  life:  the  creation  hi  them  of  an  "inter- 
national mind"  by  direct  contact  and  study  with  the 
peoples  of  Europe.  For  the  perpetuation  of  this  large 
scale  exchange  of  knowledge  an  international  machinery 
is  necessary.  The  control  of  this  machinery  should  be 
the  Commission  on  International  Education.  For 
education  is  the  most  important  of  all  the  instruments 
of  internationally,  the  foundation  and  cement  of 
international  organization.  Ignorance  has  withheld 
the  League  of  Nations  until  war  compelled  it  to  come 
forth.  Knowledge  will  maintain  it  in  being,  against 
all  the  special  interests  whose  good  may  he  in  its 
destruction. 

"Take  care  of  education,  Plato  makes  Socrates  say 
in  the  *  Republic,'  and  education  will  take  care  of 
everything  else.  Internationally,  education  must  rest 
on  two  principles:  one,  that  it  must  be  autonomous; 
the  other,  that  it  must  be  unprejudiced. 

"Regarding  the  first:  We  have  already  seen  how, 
in  the  case  of  Germany,  the  state's  control  of  education 
laid  the  foundation  for  the  present  war.  The  school 
served  the  state's  vested  interest  in  the  school  as, 
formerly,  it  had  served  that  of  the  Church.  From  the 
dark  ages  to  the  present  day  the  Church  had  held  a 
vested  interest  hi  the  school,  an  interest  from  which 
events  have  more  or  less  freed  the  latter  but  which 
still  makes  itself  felt.  With  the  rise  of  private  educa- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i3i 

tional  institutions  or  the  secularization  of  theological 
ones  —  such  as  Harvard  or  Yale  or  Princeton  —  with 
the  elaboration  of  the  public  school  systems  of  the 
different  states  of  this  country  or  any  other,  the  powers 
of  the  government,  visible  or  invisible,  have  determined 
largely  what  should  and  what  should  not  be  taught, 
what  is  true  and  what  is  false,  always  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  interests  of  these  powers.    Heresy  has 
been  consistently  persecuted,  with  means  varying  from 
the  auto-da-fe  of  the  Church  to  the  more  delicate  tools 
of  contemporary  university  trustees  or  school  commit- 
tees.   Heresy  consists  of  that  which  is  not  in  accord 
with  the  interests  or  prejudices  of  the  ruling  power. 
"Now  the  art  of  education  involves  three  elements: 
First,  its  theme  —  the  growing  child,  whose  creative 
spontaneities  are  to  be  encouraged,  whose  capacities 
for  service  and  happiness  are  to  be  actualized,  in- 
tensified, and  perfected.    Second,  the  investigator  and 
inventor  or  artist  who  discovers  or  makes  the  material 
and  machinery  which  are  the  conditions  of  the  child's 
life  and  growth,  which  liberate  or  repress  these.    Third, 
the  teacher  who  transmits  to  the  child  the  knowledge 
of  the  nature  and  use  of  these  things,  drawing  out  its 
powers  and  enhancing  its  vitality  by  means  of  them. 
Obviously,  to  the  last  two,  to  the  discoverers   and 
creators  of  knowledge,   and  to   its  transmitters  and 
distributors,  to  these  and  to  no  one  else  beside,  belongs 
the  control  of  education.     It  is  as  absurd  that  any  but 
teachers  and  investigators  should  govern  the  art  of 
education  as  that  any  but  medical  practitioners  and 
investigators    should    govern    the    art    of   medicine. 
International   law   would   best   abolish   the   existing 
external  control  by  making  the  communities  of  edu- 


i32  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

cators  everywhere  autonomous  bodies,  vigorously  co- 
operative in  an  international  union.  Within  this  union 
the  freest  possible  movement  of  teachers  and  pupils 
should  be  provided  for  by  way  of  exchanges  or  both 
between  all  nationalities  to  the  end  of  attaining  the 
acme  of  free  trade  in  habits  and  theories  of  life,  in 
letters,  and  in  methods. 

"Regarding  the  second  principle  of  internationalized 
education  —  that  it  must  be  unprejudiced:  This 
requires  the  systematic  internationalization  of  certain 
subject  matters.  In  the  end,  of  course,  all  subject 
matters  get  internationalized.  The  process  is,  how- 
ever, too  slow  and  too  dangerous  with  respect  to  some 
of  these,  history  being  the  most  flagrant.  Compare 
any  collection  of  history  text-books  with  any  similar 
collection  in  physics,  for  example,  and  you  will  find 
the  latter  possessed  of  a  unanimity  never  to  be  attained 
in  the  former.  Why?  Because  every  hypothesis  in 
physics  is  immediately  tested  in  a  thousand  laboratories 
and  the  final  conclusion  is  the  result  of  the  collective 
enterprise  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  physicists.  In 
the  writing  of  history  such  cooperative  verification 
never  occurs.  Most  histories,  particularly  those  put 
into  the  hands  of  children,  utter  vested  interests,  not 
scientifically  tested  results;  they  utter  sectarian  or 
national  vanity,  class  privilege,  class  resentment,  and 
so  on.  Compare  any  English  history  of  the  American 
revolution  with  any  American  history.  Fancy  the 
wide  divergence  of  assertion  between  friends  and 
enemies  in  the  matter  of  German  atrocities.  Naturally, 
the  interpretation  of  historic  'fact'  must  and  should 
vary  with  the  interpreter,  but  the  designation  of  the 
same  'fact'  should  clearly  be  identical  for  all  inter- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i33 

preters.  To  keep  education  unprejudiced  requires 
therefore  the  objective  designation  of  historic  fact  — 
'historic'  to  mean  the  recorded  enterprise  of  all  depart- 
ments of  human  life.  The  'facts'  of  history  should  be 
tested  by  an  international  commission.  So  the  second 
function  of  education  is  served."1 

A  number  of  international  educational  organizations 
already  exist.  And  there  is  an  international  history 
commission  of  some  sort.  It  would  be  the  function 
of  the  International  Commission  on  Education  to 
coordinate  and  to  integrate  the  work  of  all  such  organi- 
zations hi  accordance  with  a  careful  and  well-considered 
program  for  the  freest  possible  movement  of  teachers 
and  students  of  all  nationalities  and  of  all  stations 
between  the  different  states  and  schools  of  the  world. 
Its  work  might  be  begun  with  the  international  army 
in  France,  redistributing  English,  French,  Italians, 
Americans,  Poles,  Russians,  Czecho-Slovaks,  and  Ger- 
mans to  schools  and  countries  not  their  own,  there  to 
teach  and  to  learn  the  mind  of  the  national  neighbor. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL   COMMISSION    ON    HYGIENE 

The  growing  number  of  international  organizations 
devoted  to  the  study  and  development  of  one  branch 
or  another  of  the  science  and  art  of  medicine  is  a  sign 
of  the  recognition  among  those  competent  of  the 
interdependence  of  the  health  conditions  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  world.  These  organizations  are  sporadic 
and  voluntary,  the  fruits  of  uncoordinated  interests 
and  needs,  and  usually  organized  on  too  impecunious 
a  basis  to  be  able  to  undertake  large  enterprises  under 

1  H.  M.  Kallen:  "The  Structure  of  Lasting  Peace,"  pp.  172-176 
inc. 


i34  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

a  systematic  program  of  international  cooperation. 
The  problems  of  health  which  have  come  with  the 
industrial  reorganization  of  the  world's  economy  are 
now  essentially  the  same  at  home  and  essentially  the 
same  abroad.  They  are  problems  arising  out  of 
disease  due  to  industry  and  its  conditions  —  out  of 
the  diseases  of  mines  and  of  factories,  and  their  solution 
requires  a  common  program  of  investigation  and 
experiment.  The  problems  of  health  which  have  come 
with  the  growth  and  swiftness  of  communication - 
the  problems  of  infection  and  quarantine  —  are  even 
more  international.  A  uniform  standard  of  tests  and 
practices  is  desirable.  Perhaps  the  outstanding  ob- 
stacle in  making  undeveloped  or  savage  countries 
habitable  and  fruitful  is  the  menace  to  the  health  of 
men  that  infests  them.  The  study  and  elimination 
of  the  causes  of  tropical  diseases  is  of  prime  interna- 
tional concern,  because  the  opening  up  of  the  tropics 
for  the  widest  possible  uses  of  man  is  a  vital  interest  of 
all  nations.  There  exists  an  International  Commission 
for  Tropical  Medicine,  just  as  there  exists  a  Universal 
Sanitary  Union,  but  the  program  and  operations  of  all 
these  organizations  ought  to  be  coordinated,  the 
problems  subdivided,  the  work  distributed  regionally 
and  otherwise,  and  the  whole  enterprise  properly 
financed.  The  enterprise,  in  a  word,  should  be  an 
organized  activity  of  international  government.  It 
should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  an  International 
Commission  on  Hygiene  which  should  be  charged  with 
jurisdiction  over  all  matters  involving  international 
interests  in  the  prevention  and  cure  of  disease,  the 
sanitation  of  areas  of  the  world's  surface  and  so  on. 
Such  a  commission  would  be  nothing  new.  It  would 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i35 

merely  coordinate  and  impart  unity  of  purpose,  force 
and  direction  to  enterprises  already  going  on,  and 
desiring  just  this  change.  These  enterprises  —  all  the 
international  medical  congresses,  commissions  and 
associations  —  it  would  either  take  over  or  cooperate 
with.  It  would  put  behind  the  natural  internationalism 
of  science  the  force  of  the  League  of  Nations. 

THE    INTERNATIONAL    COMMISSION    ON    CONDITIONS   OF 

LABOR 

The  dislocation  of  industry  by  war  has  eventuated, 
in  England  at  least,  in  a  revolution  in  the  position  and 
attitude  of  labor.  In  many  respects  the  class-war  has 
given  way  to  class-cooperation,  and  both  the  parlia- 
mentary acceptance  of  the  Whitley  report  and  the 
spontaneous  action  of  a  number  of  employers  have 
brought  England  closer  in  many  ways  to  an  organized 
industrial  democracy  than  any  other  country  in  the 
world.  The  changes  have  not  been,  considering  the 
pace  of  the  war,  rapid  or  orderly,  coming  as  they  have 
come,  as  results  of  struggle  and  compromise,  but  they 
are  all  the  more  likely  to  be  deep-rooted  and  lasting 
for  that.  And  the  development  of  the  new  Labor 
Party,  named  for  its  ideals  rather  than  its  constituency, 
promises  a  still  greater  modicum  of  organized  democ- 
racy in  industrial  life.  This  democracy  is  implicit 
and  overt  in  the  program  and  aspirations  of  the  English 
people,  and  its  future  is  as  secure  as  the  future  of  such 
a  thing  can  be.  In  the  United  States  the  case  is  the 
reverse.  Not  only  is  labor  organization  much  more 
primitive,  more  poorly  integrated,  trained  and  led, 
it  is  essentially  illiberal.  It  has  done  very  little  toward 
the  winning  of  industrial  democracy,  and  all  the  impor- 


i36  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

tant  advances  in  labor  standards,  in  the  establishment 
of  the  eight-hour  law,  the  rules  and  devices  of  safety 
and  sanitation,  the  advances  in  wages,  in  the  control 
of  unemployment,  and  in  the  general  protection  of  the 
worker  against  exploitation  and  oppression,  are  the 
results  of  executive  order.  They  do  not  lie  deep  in 
the  will  and  program  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
as  things  fought  for  and  won  do.  In  fact,  it  is  not 
false  to  say  that  the  whole  country  is  liberal  by  execu- 
tive order;  that  it  is  passively,  not  passionately  and 
militantly  liberal,  and  that  a  change  in  the  Administra- 
tion might  be  followed  by  a  very  serious  change  in 
the  attitude  and  temper  of  the  American  people.  It 
would  be  going  too  far  afield  to  go  into  the  reasons  for 
this,  to  discuss  the  relation  between  economic  resources, 
population,  and  the  fluidity  and  instability  of  social 
classes.  For  the  purpose  in  hand  it  is  enough  to 
register  the  fact,  a  fact  which  must  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  determining  the  relation  of  interna- 
tional organization  to  the  labor  of  the  world. 

For  the  labor  of  the  world,  it  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated,  has  most  at  stake  in  the  outcome  of  the 
war.  It  has  most  to  win  and  most  to  lose.  It  has 
given  most  and  suffered  most.  Unless  it  is  united  in 
its  purposes  and  explicit  in  its  demands,  it  may  have 
to  surrender  most.  Reconstruction  and  demobiliza- 
tion may  destroy  all  its  winnings,  everywhere.  In 
Europe  this  is  well-recognized.  "  It  cannot  but  be  an- 
ticipated," says  the  Memorandum  on  War  Aims  adopted 
at  the  Inter-Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Conference  in 
London,  "that,  in  all  countries  the  dislocation  of 
industry  attendant  on  peace,  the  instant  discharge  of 
millions  of  munition  makers  and  workers  in  war- 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      187 

trades,  and  the  demobilization  of  millions  of  soldiers,  — 
in  the  face  of  the  scarcity  of  industrial  capital,  the 
shortage  of  raw  materials,  and  the  insecurity  of  com- 
mercial enterprise  —  will,  unless  prompt  and  energetic 
action  be  taken  by  the  several  governments,  plunge  a 
large  part  of  the  wage-earning  population  into  all  the 
miseries  of  unemployment  more  or  less  prolonged. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  widespread  unemployment  in 
any  country,  like  a  famine,  is  an  injury  not  to  that 
country  alone,  but  impoverishes  also  the  rest  of  the 
world,  the  Conference  holds  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
government  to  take  immediate  action,  not  merely  to 
relieve  the  unemployed,  when  unemployment  has  set 
in,  but  actually,  so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  to  prevent 
the  occurrence  of  unemployment."  And  it  urges  labor 
organizations  to  press  upon  their  governments  the 
preparation  of  plans  for  the  execution  of  public  works 
which  will  keep  the  annual  demand  for  labor  level 
from  year  to  year  and  thus  prevent  unemployment. 

That  much  can  be  done  in  this  way,  there  is  no 
doubt.  But  that  any  actual  prevention  of  mass- 
misery  on  a  large  scale  can  be  so  prevented  seems  very 
doubtful.  Wages  and  standards  make  a  difference, 
and  as  between  Europe  and  America  the  migratory 
character  of  labor,  particularly  of  unskilled  labor, 
becomes  more  and  more  definitive  every  year.  Prior 
to  the  war  the  annual  flood  and  ebb  of  Russian  laborers 
in  Germany  amounted  to  hundreds  of  thousands,  and 
the  migration  of  labor  to  and  from  the  United  States, 
to  millions.  The  employer's  interest  in  cheap  labor, 
the  laborer's  natural  desire  for  high  wages,  both 
militate  against  the  success  by  itself  of  the  conference's 
proposal.  Already  manufacturers  in  the  United  States 


1 38  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

are  grumbling  about  the  advantage  of  cheap  labor 
abroad  and  tariff -profiteers  are  urging  the  "protection" 
of  American  industries,  while  the  attitude  of  organized 
labor  in  America  toward  immigration  has  undergone 
no  revision.  In  England  for  similar  reasons  pro- 
tectionism has  a  growing  party.  The  competition  of 
labor  with  labor  is  itself  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the 
effective  prevention  of  unemployment.  This  requires 
some  sort  of  international  labor  agreement,  made 
independently  of  governments,  but  which  government 
shall  concur  in,  and  a  genuine  international  organiza- 
tion of  trades-unions  and  other  labor  societies  which 
shall  guarantee  the  enforcement  of  this  agreement. 

But  the  force  and  purport  of  the  agreement  must 
go  deeper.  It  must  establish  an  international  mini- 
mum below  which  the  standard  of  living  of  the  most 
unskilled  of  laborers  may  not  be  permitted  to  fall. 
This  minimum  cannot  be  measured  in  money-wages. 
It  can  be  measured  only  in  food,  air-space,  medicine, 
clothing,  recreation,  education,  insurance  against 
disease,  old  age  and  death.  Its  money-value  would 
vary  considerably  from  country  to  country  and  climate 
to  climate.  But  it  would  equalize  the  disproportion 
in  labor-cost  as  between,  say  Bombay,  India,  and 
Manchester,  England,  or  Naples,  Italy,  and  Lowell, 
Massachusetts.  It  would  automatically  regulate  the 
migration  of  labor  and  tend  as  nothing  else  to  keep 
its  distribution  level.  If,  further,  the  distribution  is 
facilitated  by  international  labor  exchanges,  the  menace 
of  labor  to  labor  and,  in  consequence,  the  menace  of 
labor  against  the  employment  of  capital  at  home  is 
completely  neutralized.  An  international  commission 
having  these  and  other  similar  matters  in  charge 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i3g 

would  need  to  be  composed  first  of  all  of  medical  and 
sanitary  experts  who  could  designate  the  international 
minimum  in  the  scientific  terms  of  human  physiology; 
secondly,  of  directly  chosen  representatives  of  the 
laboring  men  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  to  voice 
their  needs  and  aspirations  of  the  spirit  and  to  watch 
over  their  interests  against  oppression.  For  the 
possibilities  of  oppression  in  such  a  commission  are 
very  great.  Wherefore  its  membership  must  be  both 
designated  and  chosen  by  labor  and  be  directly  responsi- 
ble to  labor.  Perhaps  the  simplest  and  most  effective 
procedure  would  be  at  the  Peace  Conference  to  con- 
stitute the  Inter- Allied  Labor  and  Socialist  Conference 
a  completely  international  body  charged  with  the 
particular  duty  of  choosing  the  international  com- 
missioners and  of  holding  them  to  their  responsibilities. 
The  whole  proposal  rests  on  the  axiom  that  labor  is 
not  a  commodity.  Labor  is  not  a  thing  that  can  be 
detached  from  a  man  and  sent  out  into  the  market 
to  be  bought  and  sold  like  iron  or  coal  or  food  or  books 
or  guns.  Labor  is  so  much  the  life  of  a  man,  that 
when  he  sells  his  labor  he  sells  his  life.  To  the  security 
of  that  life,  to  the  protection  and  encouragement  of 
its  spontaneities  each  man,  of  whatever  race,  has  a 
right,  no  greater  but  also  no  less  than  that  of  his 
fellows.  It  will  be  the  business  of  the  International 
Commission  on  Labor  so  to  watch  over  the  conditions 
and  implements  of  industry  as  to  insure  for  labor 
security  against  oppression  and  freedom  for  self- 
government  and  self-development.  Nothing  short  of 
an  international  minimum  can  provide  such  insurance, 
and  it  will  be  for  the  Commission  to  establish  and 
maintain  this  minimum.  By  doing  this  it  will  effec- 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

tively  hold  in  check  the  more  obvious  conditions  of 
unemployment,  the  competition  of  labor  with  labor 
and  the  tariff-breeding  sophisms  of  capital. 

C.  The  Ministry  of  the  International  Council. 

1.  (a)  The  presiding  officer  of  the  International  Council, 

together  with  the  presiding  officers  of  the  Inter- 
national Commissions  and  sub-Commissions, 
and  of  the  International  Court,  shall  compose 
the  Ministry  of  the  International  Council. 
(b)  The  presiding  officer  of  the  International  Coun- 
cil shall  also  be  the  presiding  officer  of  its 
ministry. 

2.  The  Ministry  of  the  International  Council  shall  be 
charged  with  such  executive  powers  as  may  be  delegated 
to  them  by  the  International  Council. 

Primarily  the  function  of  the  International  Ministry 
would  be  to  act  as  a  coordinative  and  clearing  agency 
for  the  operation  of  the  various  international  councils, 
courts,  and  commissions.  Deriving  its  special  min- 
isterial powers  from  the  International  Council,  yet 
being  composed  of  the  heads  of  the  various  international 
courts  and  commissions,  it  would  form  the  connecting 
link  between  the  administrative  and  legislative  agencies 
of  international  regulation,  serve  to  keep  the  work  of 
the  commissions  under  the  constant  check  and  survey 
of  the  International  Council,  and  the  Council  aware 
of  the  conditions  of  administration  confronting  the 
commissions.  It  would  probably  recommend  legisla- 
tion and  formulate  policies. 

There  may  be  some  doubt  as  to  just  what  commission- 
heads  should  be  included  in  it.  Certainly  the  heads  of 
all  the  major  commissions  —  Armament,  Commerce, 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i4i 

Education,  Finance,  Hygiene,  Labor.  Very  probably 
the  heads  of  the  Commissions  on  Central  Africa  and 
Undeveloped  Countries.  But  all  of  the  subcommis- 
sions  of  the  commission  on  International  Commerce 
are  of  fundamental  importance,  and  places  for  their 
heads  in  the  International  Ministry  are  probably 
indispensable  necessities.  The  American  War  Council, 
designed  to  coordinate  analogous  agencies  and  meeting 
with  the  President  every  Wednesday,  is  composed  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Director-General  of 
Railroads,  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  the  Food  Administrator,  the  Fuel  Administrator 
the  chairmen  of  the  War  Trade  Board,  the  Shipping 
Board,  and  the  War  Industries  Board.  The  necessities 
of  coordination  will  hardly  fail  to  make  desirable  an 
analogous  constitution  for  the  International  Ministry. 
It  would  consist,  then,  of  the  president  of  the  Interna- 
tional Council,  the  chairmen  of  the  major  commissions 
and  the  chairmen  of  the  subcommissions  on  raw 
materials,  food,  fuel,  waterways,  highways,  airways, 
shipping,  post,  telegraph  and  telephone. 

Another  debatable  point  in  the  constitution  of  the 
International  Ministry  is  its  presidency.  It  seems 
desirable  that  the  president  of  the  International 
Council  should  be  president  of  the  Ministry  because  in 
this  way  the  linking  of  the  legislative  and  executive 
functions  of  international  organization  is  most  easily 
to  be  effected.  The  League  of  Nations  will  have  to 
be  without  an  executive  head  as  such.  In  so  far  as  it 
has  one,  that  one  will  be  the  International  Ministry. 
If  the  president  of  the  Ministry  and  the  president  of 
the  International  Council  are  one,  and  his  powers  are 
limited  to  the  presiding  functions,  such  dangers  of 


i42  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

Caesarism  as  there  might  be  will  be  entirely  obviated, 
and  the  advantages  of  a  personal  symbol  for  the  unity 
of  the  world  attained.  The  value  of  such  a  symbol 
for  the  concretion  of  an  extensive  and  indefinite  opera- 
tion is  of  course  obvious.  America  is  Wilson;  France, 
Poincare;  England  is  George;  Germany,  Wilhelm. 
The  whole  stupendous  operation  of  which  these  coun- 
tries consist  is  realized  and  rendered  dramatic  in  the 
personification,  while  the  symbolic  personage  himself 
may  be  as  impotent  as  Czar  Nicholas. 

The  members  of  the  Ministry  will  of  course  have 
seats  in  the  International  Council,  but  save  in  the 
case  of  the  president,  without  voting  power. 

D.   The  International  Court. 

1.  An  International  Court  shall  be  established  with 
jurisdiction  over  all  disputes  between  members  of  the 
League  or  between  governments  and  peoples  or  other 
organizations  within  any  state  in  the  League. 

2.  All  disputes  among  the  constituent  Slates  of  the 
League  or  any  groups  therein  shall  be  held  justiciable. 

3.  Non-members  of  the  League  shall  be  free  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  services  of  the  court  on  the  same  terms  as 
members.    Disputes  designated  by  them  as  non- justiciable 
may  be  referred  for  settlement  to  the  International  Council 
or  to  agencies  of  conciliation  created  by  it  for  the  purpose. 

4.  (a)    The  number  of  judges   in  the  International 
Court  shall  be  25.     They  shall  be  elected  by  the  Inter- 
national  Council  from   nominations   submitted  by   the 
popular  branches  of  the  legislatures   in  the  respective 
States  of  the  League. 

(b)    They  shall  serve  for  a  term  of  seven  years. 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i/tf 

5.  The  rules  prescribing  the  organization  of  the  Court 
shall  be  drawn  by  the  International  Council.     The  Court 
shall  elect  its  own  officers. 

6.  Appeals  from   the  decision  of  the  International 
Court  or  any  of  its  branches  may  be  taken  to  the  Inter- 
national Council,  which  shall  determine  what  matters 
coming  before  the  Court  are  open  to  appeal. 

The  idea  of  an  International  Court  has  long  been 
considered  practicable.  The  difficulties  of  maintaining 
merely  a  Court  lie  chiefly  in  the  fact  that  its  functions 
are  entirely  remedial.  It  cannot  obviate  or  prevent 
disputes.  It  can  only  deal  with  disputes  after  they 
have  arisen.  And  after  it  has  passed  on  them  it  can- 
not, without  a  centralized  police  agency,  enforce  its 
decisions.  The  Permanent  Court  at  the  Hague  has 
consequently  been  of  little  value  in  the  settlement  of 
material  disputes  between  the  great  powers,  and  no 
additions  to  it  or  elaborations  of  it  are  likely  to  enhance 
this  value.  For  the  purposes  of  effective  international 
organization  a  Court  can  be  only  a  supplementary 
agency,  designed  to  remedy  those  troubles  which  have 
not  been  or  cannot  be  prevented.  Its  operation  can 
be  effective  only  in  connection  with  and  in  supplement 
of  express  legislative  and  executive  functions. 

With  this  understood,  the  organization  of  the  Court 
and  the  division  of  its  labor,  its  subdivision  into  sepa- 
rate groups  with  specialized  responsibilities  may  be 
left  to  the  members  of  the  Court  themselves.  The 
one  thing  that  must  be  clear  is  that  under  the  law  a 
distinction  between  justiciable  and  non-justiciable 
causes  may  not  be  admitted.  The  distinction  is  a 
survival  from  barbarous  times  and  its  manifestation 
in  private  life,  usually  as  the  "unwritten  law"  of  the 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

punishment  of  sexual  irregularities,  by  whites  or 
blacks,  is  invariably  in  violation  of  the  law  of  the  land. 
In  backward  countries  like  Germany,  where  it  has  a 
sanction,  it  is  associated  with  the  feudal  idea  of  "honor  " 
and  is  used  to  require  and  to  justify  the  duel.  As 
between  states,  it  rests  on  the  conception  of  "vital 
interests"  as  well  as  "honor."  But  there  is  no  "vital 
interest"  of  one  state  which  at  the  same  time  does  not 
affect  the  "vital  interest"  of  some  other.  And  it  is 
precisely  this  fact  which  makes  a  single  law  and  a 
single  rule  of  justice  and  decency  for  the  adjudication 
of  the  conflicting  interests  of  states  imperative.  A 
state's  total  vital  interest  is  not  conserved  or  helped 
even  by  victorious  warfare,  as  the  pre-war  condition 
of  both  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary,  France,  and 
Serbia  show.  Disputes  are  as  justiciable  as  people 
think  they  are,  and  the  signatory  members  of  a  League 
of  Nations  must  agree  that  all  disputes  are  justiciable. 
This  agreement  is  the  more  necessary  because  it  will 
abolish  the  validity  of  the  last  resort  of  the  patrioteer 
and  interest-monger-  "honor."  Honor,  more  than 
any  other  international  superstition,  rests  on  the 
opinion  of  the  other  fellow.  The  dishonor  of  not 
keeping  an  international  pledge  should  become  more 
efficacious  in  safeguarding  "honor"  than  the  possible 
indignity  it  might  suffer  by  withdrawing  from  an 
iniquitous  position  such  as  the  French  took  up  in 
Morocco,  the  Germans  in  China  or  the  English  in 
Egypt.  "National  honor"  will  not  suffer  by  the 
rule  which  makes  all  disputes  justiciable.  "National 
honor"  will  only  thereby  be  rendered  more  responsive 
to  the  actual  conditions  and  character  of  honorable 
conduct  among  men  and  states. 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i45 

With  states  that  are  not  members  of  the  League 
the  situation  is  slightly  different,  just  as  it  is  different 
in  private  matters  with  Australian  blackfellows  and 
African  bushmen.  But  to  create  for  this  type  of 
difference,  as  is  proposed  in  certain  quarters,  a  special 
permanent  agency  like  a  court  of  conciliation,  is  to 
admit  it  to  an  unwarranted  equality  with  lawful  and 
civilized  international  being  and  to  assume  that  there 
will  always  be  states  not  members  of  the  League. 
Neither  admission  nor  assumption  should  be  conceded, 
least  of  all  in  the  constitution  for  a  League  of  Nations. 
Whenever  "councils  of  compilation"  are  needed,  they 
may  be  created  ad  hoc  and  only  so. 

An  alternative  to  their  creation  would  be  to  allow 
for  a  judgment  by  the  International  Court  which 
should  establish  the  facts  and  the  rights  in  a  case,  and 
recommend,  but  not  order,  action.  Each  recommenda- 
tion would  have  enormous  weight  with  public  opinion 
where  non-members  of  the  League  are  concerned,  and 
among  members  would  tend  to  have  mandatory  force. 
A  vote  of  the  International  Council  would,  of  course, 
give  it  to  them  outright,  but  if  the  issue  were  important 
enough,  a  referendum  on  this  decision  could  be  called 
for.  Freedom  to  appeal  on  all  matters  of  fundamental 
importance  from  the  decisions  of  the  Court  to  the 
Council,  and  of  the  Council  by  referendum  to  the 
constituent  states,  renders  the  fear  of  oppression  purely 
metaphysical  and  secures  completely  the  "honor"  of 
a  litigant  state.  For  any  nation,  even  Germany,  can 
rely  on  the  fact  that  what  the  majority  of  the  world 
decides  about  its ' '  honor ' '  is  its  *  *  honor  "  -  or  dishonor. 
The  will  of  the  world  is  equally  determinative  in  other 
types  of  so-called  non-justiciable  issues  —  new  legisla- 


i46          THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

tion,  for  example,  affecting  "vital  interests"  —  and  it 
is  far  more  humane  and  cheaper  to  get  the  world  to 
express  its  will  by  a  vote  than  by  a  war.  Freedom  of 
appeal  secures  this  end  to  the  ultimate  degree.  Only 
madness  could,  under  such  circumstances,  seek  the 
appeal  to  war. 

What  the  number  of  the  judges  in  the  International 
Court  should  be  is  an  open  question.  The  favorite 
number  falls  between  nine  and  sixteen.  Twenty-five 
is  proposed  in  view  of  the  probable  division  of  labor 
the  court  is  likely  to  be  called  upon  to  establish,  and 
the  need  of  having  sufficient  man-power  even  for  the 
Olympian  judicial  enterprise.  It  is  more  dangerous 
to  have  too  few  judges  than  too  many. 

The  choice  of  the  judges  is  a  far  more  serious  matter. 
Certain  proposals  aim  to  confine  the  selection  from 
among  Americans,  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Germans. 
This  is  neither  just  nor  democratic  nor  effective. 
A  Chinaman  may  make  as  excellent  an  international 
judge  as  an  American,  and  a  Hindu  as  an  Englishman. 
A  wiser  procedure  is  to  allow  the  popular  legislature 
of  each  state  to  make  two  or  one  or  three  nominations 
(the  legislatures  need  not  confine  their  nominations  to 
the  citizens  of  their  own  states)  to  the  International 
Council.  The  Council  may  then  elect  the  necessary 
number  from  the  nominees.  The  vote  ought  perhaps 
to  be  proportional,  so  as  to  insure  judges  actually 
representing  a  majority  of  the  voting  power.  In  this 
way  invidious  distinctions  and  the  disgrace  of  exclusion 
from  full  participation  in  international  responsibilities 
will  be  eliminated  as  a  factor  in  international  relations 
at  this  point  at  least. 

Concerning  the  term  of  service  of  the  judges  there 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i47 

ought  not  to  be  much  disagreement.  "During  good 
behavior"  is  an  effective  formula  where  there  is  com- 
plete unity  of  sentiment  and  no  fear  of  oppression.  A 
limited  service  constitutes  a  check  on  the  conduct  of 
an  official  and  a  safeguard  against  exploitation  at  his 
hands.  All  international  officials  ought  to  serve  for 
only  short  periods  and  perhaps  be  ineligible  to  reelec- 
tion. Seven  years  for  judges  is  a  long  time  and  if  they 
are  eligible  to  renomination  and  reelection,  both  con- 
tinuity of  the  Court's  operations  and  control  of  them 
are  safeguarded.  The  natural  arrangement  at  the  be- 
ginning would  be  to  have  the  five  getting  the  high- 
est number  of  votes  serve  the  full  seven  years,  the  five 
getting  the  next  highest  to  serve  six  years;  the  next 
five,  five  years;  the  next,  four;  the  next,  three.  At  the 
end  of  three  years  the  Council  would  elect  five  new 
judges  for  seven  years,  and  so  every  year  thereafter. 


V.    THE   COMPENSATION   OF   INTERNATIONAL  OFFICERS 

The  International  Council  shall  have  power  to  fix  and 
to  pay  the  salaries  of  its  own  members,  of  the  judges  of 
the  International  Court,  of  the  members  of  the  Inter- 
national Commissions,  their  agents  and  subordinates, 
and  of  all  other  officers  and  servants  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

This  article  needs  no  discussion,  beyond  the  remark 
that  the  suggestion,  current  in  some  circles,  that 
officers  of  the  League  of  Nations  be  paid  by  the  states 
of  their  origin  is  to  put  upon  such  officers  a  gratuitous 
dependence  on  these  states  that  can  have  only  disturb- 
ing, if  not  disastrous,  consequences  to  any  international 
system  the  officers  might  be  called  upon  to  serve, 


i48  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  officers  of  the  League  of  Nations  must  be  officers 
of  the  League  of  Nations,  paid  by  it,  and  committed 
to  its  exclusive  service. 

VI.    RELATIONS  OF  INTERNATIONAL   OFFICERS  TO  CON- 
STITUENT  STATES   AND   TO   THE    LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS 

1.  No  officer  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall  hold  any 
national  office,  political,  military,  social  or  civil  while  in 
the  service  of  the  League. 

2.  No  officer  of  the  League  of  Nations  shall,  while  in 
the  service  of  the  League,  or  for  five  years  thereafter,  accept 
any  title,  honor,  or  emolument  or  other  mark  of  distinction 
or  favor  from  the  government  or  people  of  any  state  whether 
in  the  League  or  not. 

3.  Negligence  of  public  duty  shall  be  ground  for  the 
impeachment  and  removal  of  international  officers.     The 
accused  shall  have  a  fair  trial  before  the  International 
Council  and  two  thirds  of  the  vote  of  the  wfiole  council 
shall  be  necessary  for  impeachment. 

This  section  is  intended,  like  Section  V,  to  safeguard 
the  League  from  undue  influence  of  any  constituent 
State  through  its  officers.  The  officers  of  the  League 
must  be,  as  tradition  declares  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  to  be,  free  from  all  interests 
and  connections  that  might  bias  them  or  interfere  with 
the  proper  discharge  of  their  duties.  Their  interest 
and  allegiance  must  reside  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the 
League  of  Nations  alone. 

VII.    THE   ENFORCEMENT   OF   INTERNATIONAL 
DECREES 

A.  Except  in  cases  where  appeals  may  be  taken  or  a 
referendum  is  called  for,  failure  to  carry  out  the  decrees  of 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL 

the  International  Council,  its  Commissions  or  its  Courts 
shall  be  regarded  as  a  declaration  of  war  upon  the  League. 

B.  The  economic  and  military  resources  of  the  con- 
stituent states  of  the  League  shall  be  at  the  disposal  of  the 
International  Council  for  the  enforcement  of  its  decrees 
or  those  of  the  International  Commissions  and  Court. 

C.  Decrees  may  be  enforced  or  their  violation  punished 
by  any  action  within  the  competency  of  the  International 
Council,  Commission  or  Court. 

It  might  as  well  be  declared  at  the  outset  and  clearly 
recognized  that  the  sanction  of  international  govern- 
ment, far  more  than  the  sanction  of  government  of 
any  other  order,  must  lie  in  the  consent  of  the  governed. 
Although,  in  view  of  the  manifold  tyrannies  —  political, 
economic,  social,  religious,  cultural  —  which  oppress 
mankind,  this  notion  may  seem  a  paradox,  it  is  a  truism 
nevertheless.  The  endurance  of  oppression  is  due 
usually  either  to  ignorance  of  its  causes  and  char- 
acter, to  its  benevolence,  to  habit,  or  to  fear  or  to  force. 
Once  a  people  actually  wills  not  to  endure  a  government, 
the  government  goes.  Every  revolution  is  an  instance 
of  this  fact.  What  conspires  to  postpone  revolution 
is  the  series  of  factors  just  enumerated.  Now  thus 
far,  states  have  made  treaties  with  one  another  out  of 
only  two  motives  —  considerations  of  advantage  and 
considerations  of  fear.  The  same  motives  have  led 
them  also  to  break  treaties  —  as  Germany  broke  the 
war  conventions  of  the  Hague,  to  which  she  was  a 
signatory  and  the  convention  of  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium to  which  she  was  a  signatory,  and  as  Italy  broke 
the  treaty  which  established  the  triple  alliance.  So 
far  as  the  morality  of  nations  goes,  no  more  need  be 
expected  after  the  war  than  before.  All  the  nations 


i5o          THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

of  the  world  might  bind  themselves  to  the  mildest  or 
the  most  stringent  of  international  agreements. 
The  moment  it  became  in  the  judgment  of  its  rulers  to 
the  advantage  of  any  one  of  them  to  break  it,  broken 
it  would  be,  brutally  as  by  Germany  or  Italy,  or  by 
hook  or  crook  as  by  older  and  better-mannered  states. 
One  check  on  this  kind  of  international  behavior 
that  might  be  all-sufficient  would  be  the  complete 
democratization,  economic  as  well  as  political,  of  each 
sovereign  state,  the  expropriation  of  the  power  that 
makes  invisible  government  and  the  conversion  of  all 
public  policy  to  popular  control.  How  this  may  be 
accomplished  without  either  revolution  or  a  long 
process  of  time  is  not,  however,  clear.  What  is  clear 
is  this,  that  the  elimination  or  mitigation  of  the  more 
positive  causes  of  war,  even  without  any  change  in  the 
internal  conditions  of  states,  cannot  help  being,  on 
the  whole,  to  the  advantage  of  the  masses  of  men. 
They  pay  the  piper,  no  matter  who  calls  the  tune  in 
foreign  affairs,  and  the  uses  of  war  and  of  the  fear  of 
war  to  divert  discontent  and  to  keep  an  oppressive 
government  in  power  are  historic. 

Hence,  any  device  for  keeping  the  peace  is  better 
than  none  at  all.  But  any  device,  to  prove  effective, 
must  rest,  in  its  beginnings  at  least,  on  considerations 
of  advantage  and  fear.  Later,  as  education  and  habit 
make  a  decent  international  practice  normal  and 
reverend,  international  organization  may  go  purely 
on  conceptions  of  justice  and  right,  but  justice  and 
right  are  themselves  nothing  more  than  equality  of 
opportunity  for  advantage.  States  must  be  bound  to 
the  League,  their  consent  to  it  must  be  made  inevi- 
table by  the  advantage  even  the  greatest  and  richest 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i5i 

of  them  derive  from  it.  What  this  advantage  is,  the 
organization  and  functions  of  the  agencies  of  the  League 
themselves  show  clearly.  The  relief  that  must  come 
from  the  mere  remission  of  the  burdens  of  competitive 
armament  itself  makes  the  League  worth  while.  But 
the  organization  of  equitable  trade  relations,  with  the 
automatic  assurance  to  each  member  of  the  League  of 
an  equitable  supply  of  raw  materials,  of  shipping, 
and  of  markets,  will  constitute  the  positive  maintain- 
ing force  of  the  League.  Nothing  has  shown  so  clearly 
as  the  conduct  of  war  itself  that  this  is  so.  In  the 
matter  of  raw  materials,  food,  and  shipping  the  inter- 
dependence of  the  world  has  been  vindicated  by  its 
very  challenge.  Hence,  the  bulk  of  the  police  activities 
of  the  League,  its  handling  of  the  recalcitrant  or 
criminal  nation,  will  be  economic.  It  will  be  a  limita- 
tion of  intercourse  between  the  offending  state  and  the 
League,  in  any  degree  from  an  embargo  on  a  special 
material  to  complete  nonintercourse.  The  procedure 
will  take  the  simple  form  of  refusing  a  license  to  ship 
this  or  that  to  the  offending  state  until  the  interna- 
tional requirements  have  been  complied  with.  The 
last  step  would  be  the  waging  of  actual  war,  and  there 
is  no  disagreement  among  writers  on  this  matter  that 
war  may  be  either  a  joint  or  delegated  action  on  the 
part  of  the  League.  A  recalcitrant  Germany  might 
need  the  coercion  of  all  the  powers;  to  reduce  a 
Guatemala  or  a  Venezuela  to  a  proper  sense  of  its 
duties  in  the  family  of  nations,  might  be  a  duty  dele- 
gated to  the  United  States  or  Brazil.  That  any  of 
these  states  might  refuse  to  act  because  their  "vital 
interests"  were  not  involved  cannot  be  conceded. 
Their  vital  interests  are  always  involved.  For  the 


i52  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

last  quarter  of  a  century  a  war  anywhere  in  the  world 
promised  to  become  a  world  war.  And  if  any  sort  of 
international  order  whatsoever  can  get  established  the 
only  alternative  to  inaction  would  be  a  return  to 
international  anarchy.  In  sum,  if  it  is  once  conceded 
that  the  interests  of  all  the  classes  of  mankind,  the 
worker,  the  trader,  the  capitalist,  will  on  the  whole  be 
better  served  by  a  League  of  Nations,  the  sanction  of 
the  League  and  the  enforcement  of  its  laws  are  also 
conceded.  But  the  advantages  of  a  League,  particu- 
larly of  an  economic  League,  are  conceded  even 
by  governmental  authorities  and  conservatives.  The 
economic  agreement  of  the  Versailles  Conference  was 
in  effect  an  agreement  to  create  such  a  League.  Its 
inimical  intention  toward  Germany  is  on  the  whole 
irrelevant  to  the  free  and  equal  economic  relations  it 
hoped  to  maintain  among  the  Allies.  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  has  recently  reaffirmed  both  intentions.  But 
it  is  a  very  peculiar  shortsightedness  which  does  not  see 
that  if  the  Allies  are  to  gain  from  free  and  equal  eco- 
nomic relations  among  each  other,  they  stand  to  gain 
so  much  more  from  free  and  equal  economic  relations 
with  Germany.  The  English  Trades  Unions,  who 
have  voted  overwhelmingly  against  economic  war 
with  Germany,  understand  this.  They  remember  that 
Germany  was  England's  best  customer.  They  recog- 
nize that  unless  the  German  people  are  exterminated, 
they  will,  no  matter  how  complete  the  Allied  victory 
over  their  armies,  go  on  living  after  the  war.  They 
will  be  consumers  as  well  as  producers,  and  to  have  the 
wherewithal  to  buy,  they  will  need  to  have  the  where- 
withal to  sell.  Their  prosperity  is  a  condition  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  countries  that  deal  with  them,  just 


ARGUMENT  ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i53 

as  is  China's  or  Africa's.  Their  needs  are  very  much 
greater,  and  their  value  as  customers  is  measured  by 
their  needs.  To  wage  economic  war  upon  them  is  to 
wage  economic  war  upon  ourselves,  and  to  maintain 
conditions  of  strain  and  friction  which  must  sooner 
or  later  break  into  another  military  war.  Germany 
must  be  admitted  into  the  League  of  Nations  on  the 
same  conditions  as  all  states.  If  she  refuses  admission 
she  chooses  extermination,  but  it  will  be  upon  her  own 
head.  The  advantages  of  international  economic 
organization  are  obviously  reciprocal.  And  the  sanc- 
tion of  organization  lies  basically  in  this  reciprocity. 
The  enforcement  of  international  law  rests  ultimately 
upon  the  clear  recognition  of  this  fact  by  the  con- 
stituent states  of  the  League.  The  war  organization 
of  the  Allies  has  rendered  it  conspicuous  for  the  organi- 
zation of  war.  Shall  it  be  less  so  for  the  organization 
of  peace? 

VIII.    THE   REVENUES  OF  THE  LEAGUE   OF  NATIONS 

A.  THE  INTERNATIONAL  BUDGET:    i.   The  Interna- 
tional Council  shall  prepare  annually  a  budget  on  the 
basis  of  the  costs  and  charges  of  all  international  agencies 
under  its  governance. 

B.  LEVIES,    FEES,    TOLLS    AND    TAXES:     i.   The 
budget  may  be  raised  by  levies  on  the  constituent  States  of 
the  League,  the  levies  to  be  proportional  to  the  voting- 
power  of  the  States  and 

2.  By  fees,  tolls  and  taxes  on  the  use  of  international 
ways  and  other  international  organs  and  instruments. 

Perhaps  nothing  is  so  ultimately  important  as  the 
determination  of  the  taxing  power  of  a  political  organi- 
zation. On  this  power  all  its  other  powers  depend. 


i54  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  machine  must  have  fuel  if  it  is  to  work.  The 
reality  of  taxing  power  itself,  however,  lies  only  in  the 
power  to  collect  taxes.  International  organization, 
like  the  American  Continental  Congress,  may  break 
down  at  just  this  point.  It  will  require  the  utmost 
good-will  and  sincerity  of  governments  to  pay,  at  the 
outset,  the  levies  of  the  international  organization, 
no  matter  how  just  and  equitable  their  incidence  may 
be.  The  simplest  way  out  of  the  initial  difficulty 
would  be  to  give  the  international  organization  power 
to  tax  individuals  directly.  In  a  "super-state"  such 
power  would  be  a  matter  of  course,  in  a  League  of 
Nations  it  can  hardly  be  considered,  at  least,  during 
its  beginnings.  For  levies  the  League  will  have  to 
depend  on  the  sincerity  and  good  will  of  the  constituent 
states.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  why  it  should 
not  become  so  far  as  possible  independent  of  these 
by  means  of  direct  fees,  tolls,  and  taxes  on  traffic  over 
international  highways,  and  on  the  use  of  other  inter- 
national organs.  Users  will  have  anyhow  to  undergo 
taxation  for  the  upkeep  of  those,  and  the  taxes  might 
be  made  sufficient  to  maintain  the  whole  international 
organization.  The  chief  difficulty  with  this  method  of 
taxation  would  be  its  indirectness.  Indirect  taxation 
does  not  conduce  to  that  eternal  vigilance  which  is  the 
price  of  efficiency  as  well  as  of  liberty.  Direct  taxation 
does.  In  the  first  years  of  the  League  its  development 
and  perfection  will  be  particularly  dependent  on  the 
interest  and  vigilance  of  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind, 
and  nothing  could  serve  so  well  to  keep  the  League 
within  the  field  of  their  active  attention  as  the  direct 
payment  for  its  maintenance.  For  a  long  time,  how- 
ever, other  means  will  have  to  be  relied  on,  particularly 


ARGUMENT   ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i55 

those  of  publicity.     The  tax  will  compel  at  least  the 
attention  of  those  it  directly  affects. 

IX.    PUBLICITY 

A.  The    sittings   of  the   International   Council,    the 
International    Courts,    the    International    Commissions 
and  of  all  bodies  created  or  delegated  by  these  shall  be 
public  and  open. 

B.  The    International    Council,    Commissions    and 
Courts  and  all  their  agents  shall  keep  complete  records 
of  their  proceedings.     These  records  shall  at  all  times 
be  open  to  public  scrutiny  and  examination. 

Whether  public  sittings  and  full  records  will  be  the 
safeguard  that  has  been  hoped  against  the  powers  that 
operate  by  the  methods  of  secret  diplomacy  is  doubtful. 
By  themselves,  they  certainly  would  not  be.  Nobody 
will  believe  they  would  who  recalls  recent  talk  about 
"invisible  government"  in  the  United  States,  or 
knows  anything  about  the  methods  of  banks,  muni- 
tions-makers and  monopolists  in  gaining  their  ends  at 
home  and  abroad.  The  press  is  too  easy  to  control 
and  public  opinion  too  easy  to  manipulate.  Publicity 
is  neither  a  prevention  nor  a  cure.  Publicity  is  an 
insurance.  It  makes  the  account  of  any  operation 
lawfully  accessible  for  analysis  and  keeps  open  the 
way  for  challenge  or  accusation.  It  cannot  prevent 
wrongdoing,  but  it  makes  the  detection  and  punish- 
ment of  wrongdoing  easier.  The  traditional  objections 
to  publicity  do  not,  of  course,  rest  on  that  ground. 
The  traditional  objections  to  publicity  rest  on  a  dis- 
trust of  the  public:  They  are  a  mob,  swift  to  passion, 
reluctant  if  not  unable  to  think,  and  delicate  inter- 
national relations  must  not  be  negotiated  under  their 


1 56  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

scrutiny  if  they  are  to  be  negotiated  successfully.  Trust 
the  diplomatic  experts  who  know  how.  The  reply  is 
obviously  that  we  have  trusted  the  diplomatic  experts, 
and  that  they  have  invariably  led  their  faithful  over 
the  precipice.  At  the  very  worst  the  public  cannot  do 
itself  more  harm  than  the  diplomatic  experts  have  done 
it.  At  best,  its  commonsense  and  sportsmanship, 
tested  again  and  again  in  countries  with  free  institutions, 
is  security  against  international  misunderstandings. 

X.    AMENDMENT   OF   THE   INTERNATIONAL  CODE 

A.  Amendment  of  the   International   Code   may   be 
made  by  two  thirds  of  the  voting  power  of  the  League  of 
Nations. 

B.  Amendments  may  be  passed  only  by  popular  vote. 
The  votes  of  each  Constituent  State  of  the  League  shall  be 
counted  for  or  against  the  amendment  in  accord  with  the 
majority  vote  of  the  citizens  of  the  state. 

Most  of  the  disputes  about  what  shall  constitute  a 
voted  decision  of  an  international  organization  turn  oh 
the  notion  that  the  vote  of  no  state  shall  determine 
the  vital  interests  of  any  other.  Its  sovereignty  is 
regarded  as  politically  absolute,  no  matter  how  in  fact 
diplomacy  and  economic  exploitation  coerce  its  govern- 
ment. It  is  well  to  bring  this  coercion  out  into  the 
open,  to  control  and  order  it  in  lawful  forms.  In 
truth,  the  more  public  it  is  made,  the  more  it  is  put 
under  the  checks  and  sanctions  of  lawful  procedure, 
the  greater  the  security  of  the  dissenting  states  whom 
it  commits  to  a  course  of  action.  When  Japan  coerces 
China,  or  Germany  the  Scandinavian  states,  or  Austria 
Serbia,  or  the  Allies  coerce  the  neutrals,  a  technical 
wrong  is  done,  even  where  a  great  real  good  is  designed 


ARGUMENT   ON  THE  PROTOCOL      i5y 

or  accomplished,  because  of  the  illusion  of  an  ineluctable 
sovereignty.  That,  for  the  small  states,  this  is  an 
illusion,  is  freely  recognized.  But  it  is  equally  an 
illusion  for  the  great  states.  It  was  an  illusion  for 
Germany  in  the  Morocco  incident  and  for  Germany 
and  England  both  in  the  incident  of  Venezuela.  The 
demand  for  unanimous  assent  to  all  international 
proposals,  particularly  to  those  involving  the  funda- 
mental law  of  nations,  is  conspicuous  in  influential 
quarters.  Yet  it  is  a  demand  based  at  bottom  on  no 
fact  whatsoever.  It  is  a  demand  based  at  bottom 
only  on  the  unwillingness  of  the  great  states  to  subject 
their  operations  to  the  scrutiny  and  decision  of  the 
lesser  ones,  whose  interests  they  may  themselves 
desire  to  control.  A  League  of  Nations,  if  it  is  to  be  at 
all  effective,  cannot  admit  the  claim  involved  in  the 
position.  The  position  is  such  as  to  render  nugatory 
all  really  important  international  action  by  a  rule  that 
would  work  in  effect  like  a  liberum  veto.  And  the 
synonym  of  the  liberum  veto  in  history  is  anarchy. 
In  international  affairs  it  means  the  maintenance  of 
the  status  quo  ante.  The  right  rule  is  that  of  all 
democracies  —  decision  by  the  vote  of  the  majority, 
and  where  the  fundamental  law  of  nations  is  con- 
cerned, by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  voting  power 
represented  in  the  International  Council,  if  the  decision 
is  to  rest  with  peoples.  That  it  should  rest  with 
peoples  is,  of  course,  most  desirable,  and  every  means 
should  be  taken  to  place  it  so. 


IV 

SUMMARY    AND     CONCLUSION 

The  World  Made  Safe  for  Democracy 

A  HISTORIAN  of  the  twenty-first  century,  looking 
upon  the  period  between  1918  and  1918,  will  find 
in  it  a  curious  combination  of  military  stability  on  the 
field,  industrial  integration  at  home  and  moral  and 
intellectual  change  of  front  everywhere,  of  a  swiftness 
unparalleled  in  any  time.  The  German  attack  on 
civilization  began  as  an  embroilment  in  the  Balkans, 
arousing  elsewhere  curiosity  and  cynicism.  These 
had  scarcely  time  to  find  expression  when  it  became 
a  rape  and  a  felony  in  Belgium  and  an  atrocity  in 
France,  arousing  horror  and  reprobation.  Behind  it 
lay  miserable  economic  and  military  rivalries,  the 
rapine  of  finance  in  Asia  and  Africa,  the  jealousies  of 
undertakers  and  monopolists  in  Europe.  Underneath 
it  lay  secret  treaties,  pledging  the  life  and  the  treasures 
of  the  masses  of  Europe  for  the  security  of  alien  and 
even  inimical  ends.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
spirit  of  neutrality  in  America  neither  the  attacker  nor 
the  attacked  came  clean  into  the  combat.  The  force 
of  Russia  weakened  the  cause  of  Belgium  and  of 
France,  and  our  traditional  coldness  toward  England, 
to  which  we  were  educated  in  the  history-classes  of 
our  elementary  schools,  did  not  help  it.  The  brutality 
and  frightfulness  of  Germany  destroyed  whatever 

158 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION         i5g 

sympathy  with  her  our  unfortunate  educational  tradi- 
tion evoked.  Both  sides  sought  profit  from  our 
aloofness,  playing  to  use  us  to  their  own  advantage, 
the  Entente,  honestly,  out  of  their  great  need;  Germany 
hypocritically,  plotting  in  secret  against  us  in  our 
own  land  and  among  our  neighbors  and  offering  us  in 
public  the  hand  of  friendship.  To  both  sides  we  tried 
to  present  the  face  of  a  just  impartiality.  Peace  was 
desirable,  and  to  be  achieved  by  negotiation,  without 
victory;  neutral  rights  were  to  be  made  secure  on  the 
high  seas,  even  if  it  meant  the  creation  of  the  most 
powerful  navy  in  the  world  to  do  so.  At  the  same 
time  all  sorts  of  disinherited  peoples  began  to  raise 
their  heads  in  all  the  corners  of  the  earth.  The  cries 
of  Serbia  and  Belgium  were  echoed  by  Poland  and 
Bohemia,  by  Armenia  and  Judea.  The  whole  moral 
front  of  the  world  altered.  Belgium,  figure  of  sym- 
pathy and  charity  at  first,  became  a  symbol  of  honor 
and  freedom.  Germany  changed  from  a  marvel  of 
efficiency  into  a  monster  of  ruthlessness.  When 
America  entered  the  war,  she  entered  it  not  merely 
because  the  German  submarine  had  for  no  real  ad- 
vantage been  used  to  murder  American  citizens  in  the 
exercise  of  their  unquestioned  rights,  nor  because  the 
masters  of  Germany  had  shown  themselves  without 
faith  or  honor  in  word  or  deed,  but  because  also,  and 
most  largely,  in  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  America, 
the  Entente,  the  whole  Entente,  had  become  identified 
with  the  principle  of  fair  play,  of  justice  to  the  weak  as 
well  as  to  the  strong,  and  Germany  with  its  opposite. 
An  idea  of  world-right  had  half  emerged,  unclear  and 
crossed  by  doubts,  but  it  gave  the  battle  the  significance 
of  an  ideal.  What  clarified  it  completely  and  alto- 


160  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

gether,  what  drew  the  issue  sharply  and  decisively 
between  Germany  and  mankind,  was  the  revolution  in 
Russia.  That  brought  the  bulk  of  those  liberals  of 
the  world  who  still  questioned,  to  accept  the  war  and 
its  purposes;  and  the  Revolution's  challenge  to  the 
Entente  to  declare  their  peace-terms  was  made  in  a 
series  of  formulae  which  became  the  maxims  and  the 
slogans  of  the  democratic  powers.  To  these,  on 
January  8,  and  again  on  February  11,  and  again  on 
July  4,  the  President  of  the  United  States  gave  body 
and  articulation,  and  these  the  workingmen  of  the 
democratic  nations,  through  their  representatives, 
have  in  conference  unquestioningly  accepted  and 
endorsed.  Whatever  it  was  at  the  outset,  the  war  has 
become  a  people's  war  such  as  history  never  before 
knew.  The  masses  of  the  world  are  embattled  for 
freedom,  for  justice,  for  the  right  to  live,  to  labor  and 
to  utter  their  spirit  in  the  ways  and  groupings  most 
natural  to  their  character  and  most  appropriate  to 
their  inheritance. 

To  win  this,  means  more  than  to  win  the  battle. 
It  means  to  use  the  victory  as  the  occasion  for  creating 
the  conditions  and  instrumentalities  without  which 
it  cannot  come  to  be.  It  means  to  assure  security, 
freedom  and  equality  of  economic  and  cultural  oppor- 
tunities to  states,  nationalities  and  individuals.  It 
means  an  organization  of  mankind  which  will  pool  and 
justly  distribute  the  common  surplus  of  raw  materials 
and  food;  which  will  regulate  the  international  ways 
on  land  and  on  sea  and  in  the  air;  which  will  control 
armament;  which  will  secure  minorities  among  strong 
peoples  and  majorities  of  weak  and  undeveloped  peoples 
against  exploitation  and  aggression,  whether  economic, 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION         161 

military,  religious,  political  or  cultural;  which  will 
enforce  the  substitution  of  the  appeal  to  law  for  the 
appeal  to  arms  and  which  will  achieve  these  ends  by 
democratic  instruments  under  democratic  control. 
These  instruments  are  the  International  Council,  with 
its  Ministry,  the  International  Commissions  on  Com- 
merce, Armament,  Finance,  Central  Africa  and  Unde- 
veloped Countries,  Education,  Hygiene,  and  Labor, 
and  the  International  Court,  receiving  their  mandates 
from,  and  responsible  to,  peoples  rather  than  govern- 
ments, subject  to  their  question  and  answerable  to 
their  will.  Together,  these  agencies  constitute  the 
League  of  Nations  without  which  the  principles  of 
nationality  and  democracy  and  justice  cannot  be 
established  nor  the  peace  conditions  which  express 
them  in  specific  terms  be  secured  and  rendered  perma- 
nent. The  League  of  Nations,  thus,  is  the  framework 
and  totality  of  the  democratic  terms  of  peace.  Its 
establishment  is,  however,  neither  the  production  of 
new  institutions  nor  the  violation  of  any  real  national 
sovereignty.  To  create  the  League  of  Nations  is  only 
to  bring  together,  to  vitalize,  to  integrate  and  to  set 
hi  order  under  the  control  of  free  peoples  the  institu- 
tions already  existing  —  the  commissions  set  up  at 
various  times  prior  to  the  war,  the  tribunal  created 
by  the  Hague  conferences,  the  commissions  on  food, 
shipping  and  raw  materials  brought  into  being  by  the 
war's  necessities.  Permanent  peace  and  the  League 
of  Nations  so  established  are  one  and  the  same  thing. 
A  victory  which  does  not  win  the  true  League  of 
Nations  is  a  defeat,  for  the  League  of  Nations  is  the 
only  insurance  that  democracy  may  have.  Without 
it,  nations  must  of  need  arm  against  each  other, 


162  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

liberalism  will  be  faced  everywhere  by  militarism,  the 
free  man  in  society  will  be  warred  against  by  the 
soldier  in  the  state.  With  it,  nations  will  arm  with 
each  other,  the  internal  problems  of  the  democratiza- 
tion of  life  will  have  a  real  chance  for  solution  in  terms 
appropriate  to  their  materials  and  character,  freedom 
and  soldiership  will  tend  to  be  at  one.  With  it,  govern- 
ment will  be  more  nearly  the  servant  and  less  the 
master  of  society:  with  it,  the  world,  in  a  word,  will 
be  safer  for  democracy.  For  all  that  democracy  means 
is  this  —  the  organization  and  use  and  control  of  the 
materials  and  machinery  of  the  state  and  of  society 
by  all  men  for  the  liberation  and  expansion  of  all  men's 
lives. 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE 

[POSTSCRIPT,  NOVEMBER  20,  1918] 

THIS  study  was  first  drafted  early  in  September. 
The  preface  was  written  on  October  i,  and  the 
book  went  to  the  printer  soon  after.  Between  that 
day  and  this  events  have  moved  so  swiftly  and  the 
changes  in  the  political  and  social  complexion  of  con- 
tinental society  have  become  in  fact  and  in  implica- 
tion so  thoroughgoing  as  to  require  a  somewhat  fur- 
ther exposition  of  the  principles  here  propounded  and 
defended.  The  Central  Empires  have  collapsed  and 
with  their  collapse  has  come  revolution,  socialistic 
revolution.  Their  peoples  have,  as  was  foretold,  set 
themselves  free  of  their  masters  in  Bulgaria,  in  Aus- 
tria Hungary,  in  Germany.  The  masters  are  in  flight 
or  in  exile  and  the  present  governments  of  these  states 
have  agreed  to  armistices  which  put  it  beyond  their 
power  to  resume  battle.  The  armies  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  Allies  are  to  occupy  the  left  bank  of 
the  Rhine,  and  perhaps  the  new  states  between  the 
Central  Powers  and  Soviet  Russia.  They  are  waging 
a  more  or  less  desultory  and  unsuccessful  warfare  in 
Siberia  and  in  Murmansk. 

That  the  collapse  of  Germany  at  this  time  was 
anticipated  is  everywhere  denied.  Military  critics  in 
England,  France,  Italy,  and  the  United  States  are 
agreed  that  the  German  army,  though  defeated,  was 
intact,  and  all  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  war 


THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

could  not  be  finished  before  the  spring  of  1919.  The 
German  collapse  caught  all  who  are  concerned,  from 
whatever  angle,  about  the  destinies  of  mankind,  un- 
prepared. But  particularly  it  caught  the  lovers  of 
democracy  unprepared.  It  rendered  nugatory  the 
demand  for  a  preliminary  and  public  conference  of 
the  Allies  and  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  unity  of  political  front  in  the  matter  of 
peace  terms.  The  German  government's  uncondi- 
tional acceptance  of  the  terms  in  Mr.  Wilson's  speech 
of  January  8,  and  his  subsequent  speeches,  particu- 
larly that  of  September  27,  imposed  a  certain  degree 
of  unity  from  without,  a  unity  which  the  President 
of  the  United  States  has  announced  and  emphasized 
in  his  address  to  Congress  on  the  terms  of  armistice, 
but  it  has  also  been  made  clear  that  "the  freedom  of 
the  seas"  as  defined  in  the  speech  of  January  8  has  not 
been  accepted  by  the  Allies,  and  that  the  other  thir- 
teen have  been  subject  to  interpretation,  secret  inter- 
pretation and  agreement.  The  probability  of  very 
sharp  differences  of  opinion,  of  division  of  counsel 
and  conflict  of  purpose  between  the  democratic  asso- 
ciates in  the  war  against  the  Central  Powers  has,  on 
the  face  of  it,  been  obviated,  but  only  a  little.  Demo- 
cratic control  of  the  representatives  of  the  nations  at 
the  peace  table,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been  rendered 
impossible.  The  representatives  will  be  appointed, 
not  elected,  and  the  men  and  women  whose  fate  it 
will  be  their  task  to  determine  will  have  nothing  to 
say  as  to  who  they  shall  be.  Even  the  openness  of 
the  "covenants  of  peace"  has  become  seriously  com- 
promised, and  the  role  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Allies  in  Russia  and  in  Central  Europe 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE   TABLE     i65 

are  a  matter  of  concern.  Armageddon  has  by  the  col- 
lapse of  Germany  been  transferred  from  the  battle- 
field to  the  peace  table.  A  crisis,  subterraneanly  in 
actu,  is  imminent  in  the  open  among  the  Allies. 

This  crisis  looks  back  to  conditions  that  obtained 
prior  to  the  war.  The  conditions  were  of  enmities 
and  rivalries  which  the  necessity  of  facing  a  powerful 
and  unscrupulous  foe  forced  into  the  background  and 
repressed,  replacing  it  with  the  adventitious  and  im- 
posed unity  of  the  common  military  and  economic 
endeavor.  Now  that  the  cause  of  this  external  unity 
has  been  destroyed,  the  enmities  and  rivalries  it  re- 
pressed begin  to  reassert  themselves,  the  stronger  and 
the  more  violent  for  their  repression.  Of  these  the 
foremost  in  extent  and  import  is  the  struggle  of  the 
classes,  the  struggle  between  labor  and  capital  in 
industry,  between  peasant  and  landlord  in  agricul- 
ture. Over  the  continent  of  Europe,  from  Holland 
to  Russia,  from  Finland  to  Bulgaria,  this  struggle  had 
gone  on,  with  varying  fortunes,  for  a  generation.  The 
masters  of  Germany  are  said  to  have  precipitated  the 
foreign  war  in  order  to  escape  a  civil  one.  So  far  as 
their  own  destinies  are  concerned,  they  have  failed. 
Over  the  continent  of  Europe  thrones  have  fallen, 
the  rank  and  file  of  mankind  have  taken  their  sover- 
eignty back  to  themselves.  The  democracy  they 
seek  to  establish  is  not  merely  political,  it  is  indus- 
trial and  social.  It  is  a  very  diiferent  democracy  from 
that  which  opposed  the  Central  Powers.  It  is  a  power- 
ful and  widespread  aspiration  of  the  great  rank  and 
file  of  that  democracy,  of  the  masses  in  shop  and  field, 
in  mine  and  factory,  whose  self-surrender  and  devo- 
tion alone  made  the  winning  of  the  war  inevitable. 


i66  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

The  specific  and  concrete  expression  of  this  aspiration 
is  the  program  of  the  British  Labor  Party,  the  pro- 
gram of  the  Interallied  Labor  and  Socialist  Confer- 
ence. Failure  at  the  peace  table  to  meet  the  conditions 
of  this  program  will  not  improbably  turn  the  watchful 
discontent  of  the  workers  and  soldiers  in  France  and 
England  and  Italy  into  action  that  may  become 
revolution. 

Failure  to  meet  it  is  likely  if  the  financial  interests 
of  the  bankers  of  England,  France,  and  Italy  are  per- 
mitted to  define  the  peace  as  a  compromise  in  the 
division  of  spoils.  That  these  interests  have  secretly 
made  their  own  terms  which  they  will  seek  to  impose, 
is  hardly  to  be  questioned.  For  a  century  wars  have 
ended  with  peace  terms  made  in  the  interests  of  land- 
lords or  investors.  To  a  large  degree  the  war  just 
over  was  precipitated  by  the  conflict  of  such  interests 
—  conflict  over  loans,  concessions,  spheres  of  influ- 
ence, colonies  and  protectorates.  Behind  these  con- 
flicts is  a  greed  with  which  the  masses  of  men  have 
no  concern;  the  greed  of  the  frank  "sacred  egotism" 
of  the  imperialists  of  Italy,  which  has  kept  still  un- 
settled the  disputes  between  them  and  the  new  Slavic 
states  over  Dalmatia  and  the  Adriatic;  the  greed  of 
the  secret  treaty  of  1916  between  France  and  England 
over  the  division  of  Syria;  the  greed  of  bankers  for 
the  insurance  with  the  blood  and  treasure  of  nations 
of  their  loans  to  the  Czarist  government  of  Russia; 
and  other  greeds  for  the  gratification  of  which  the 
old  diplomacy  was  perfected  and  competitive  arma- 
ment vigorously  maintained.  The  men  in  whose  souls 
is  this  greed  are  everywhere  closer  to  the  agencies 
of  government  than  the  lovers  of  justice.  Their  influ- 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     167 

ence  upon  those  agencies  in  the  making  of  peace  is 
axiomatic,  and  the  kind  of  peace  they  suppose  them- 
selves by  the  nature  of  their  "interests"  to  be  com- 
pelled to  seek  is  one  which  will  at  the  same  time  weaken 
possible  rivals  abroad  and  firmly  establish  reaction  at 
home. 

Prior  to  the  war  men  of  this  class  have  in  the  United 
States  been  few  in  number  and  weak  in  influence.  The 
Monroe  doctrine  and  the  traditional  policy  of  Ameri- 
can government  toward  the  public  insurance  of  pri- 
vate investments  abroad  were  one  factor  hindering 
their  development.  The  fact  that  the  United  States 
has  itself  for  the  most  part  been  an  undeveloped  coun- 
try with  enormous  natural  resources  was  another  of 
far  greater  importance.  It  was  the  determining  ele- 
ment in  the  effectiveness  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  and 
the  fundamental  cause  of  the  economic  development 
and  social  nature  of  the  American  polity.  It  made 
of  the  United  States  a  debtor  country;  a  country, 
that  is,  with  insufficient  capital  to  develop  its  own 
resources;  a  country,  therefore,  which  had  to  import 
capital,  and  to  seduce  it  from  abroad  by  the  entice- 
ment of  large  profits.  In  comparison  with  most  of 
Europe  outside  of  Russia,  the  United  States  is  still 
an  undeveloped  country,  thinly  populated,  offering 
wealth  and  station  to  anyone  willing  to  risk  the  ad- 
venture of  fighting  for  them.  The  United  States  lures 
therefore  men  as  well  as  money.  Immigration  from 
Europe  to  America  has  been  of  far  greater  magnitude 
than  immigration  to  any  other  undeveloped  country. 
The  degree  of  social  instability,  of  flux  and  change, 
has  been  correspondingly  greater  also.  There  is  no 
caste  system  in  America.  There  are  classes,  of  course, 


i68  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

because  society  must  stratify  to  be  workable,  but  the 
formations  and  memberships  in  these  classes  are  not 
stable.  American  society  exhibits  an  infinite  deal  of 
snobbery  precisely  for  this  reason.  As  there  are  no 
differences  and  distinctions  that  are  being  always 
taken  for  granted,  as  in  Europe,  numerous  ones  are 
constantly  being  made.  Men  and  women  do  not 
accept  their  status  as  from  birth.  Native  and  immi- 
grant alike  are  always  hustling  to  "pull  down"  earn- 
ings and  "get  on."  This  getting,  activist,  hustling 
quality  is  so  fundamental  as  to  determine  the  Ameri- 
can idiom:  men  are  not  born  good,  they  "make 
good";  they  do  not  "stand"  for  Parliament,  they 
"run"  for  Congress;  they  are  "comers"  with  whom 
there's  always  " something  doing."  The  quah'ty  is 
the  quality  of  a  pronounced  individualism,  and  indi- 
vidualism seems  to  be  characteristic  of  those  countries 
which  have  not  yet  attained  economic  equilibrium, 
in  the  sense  that  population  and  resources  balance 
each  other,  whether  naturally  and  justly  or  artifi- 
cially, and  surpluses  of  men  or  money  can  find  no  soil 
at  home  to  grow  in  and  must  emigrate.  Individual- 
ism and  social  fluidity  go  together.  They  determine 
the  policies  of  labor  even  as  of  capital  and  endow 
them  with  an  identical  intent. 

This  is  why  "labor"  in  America  has  been  called  capi- 
talistic and  seems  to  be  so  backward  in  organization  and 
purpose.  Its  members  do  not  feel  themselves  to  be  sta- 
bly of  the  laboring  class.  Nor,  as  yet,  can  they.  There 
does  not  exist  in  America  a  labor  organization  which 
does  not  contain  large  numbers  of  men  who  hope  to 
move  from  the  status  of  laborer  to  status  of  employer; 
and  they  have  numerous  examples  of  such  a  progression 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     169 

before  their  eyes.  Labor  unions  and  manufacturers 
associations  are  morally  on  a  par.  Both  are  recruited 
of  a  changing  personnel  concerned  only  about  "getting 
on."  The  only  class  in  the  United  States  which  ap- 
proaches the  stability  of  the  social  classes  in  Europe 
is  the  class  of  educated  or  half-educated  intellectuals, 
living  on  salaries  —  the  class  of  the  clerk,  the  book- 
keeper, the  clergyman,  the  public  school  teacher,  the 
engineer's  draftsman,  the  professor,  the  social  worker, 
the  journalist.  It  is  significant  that  the  liberal  move- 
ments in  politics  —  the  Progressive  movement  so  ad- 
mirably done  to  death  by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  the  still-born 
National  party,  the  Socialist  movement  —  are  most 
largely  recruited  and  led  by  members  of  this  class. 
It  is  equally  significant  that  neither  labor  nor  capital 
trusts  it  nor  will  make  alliance  with  it;  both  Mr. 
Gompers  and  Mr.  Lodge  have  spoken  their  decided 
disapproval  of  it  and  all  its  works.  It  is  the  class, 
incidentally,  that  has  served  more  than  any  other, 
and  more  effectively,  to  bring  the  United  States  into 
the  war,  for  the  sake  of  democratic  ideals. 

In  all  these  respects  Europe  —  England  is  nearest 
to  us  —  is  almost  the  precise  opposite  of  the  United 
States.  The  working  class  is  static;  the  upper  classes 
are  static.  It 'is  the  intellectual  class  which  is  fluid, 
its  members  attaching  themselves  easily  now  to  the 
workers,  now  to  the  rulers.  In  England,  indeed,  the 
fighting  force  of  the  Labor  Party  has  been  largely 
gained  through  the  infiltration  of  the  intellectuals. 
3  An  effect  of  the  war  has  been  to  modify  these 
relative  positions  in  many  respects.  The  needs  of 
Europe  that  America  served  created  a  great  indebted- 
ness which  Europe  largely  liquidated  by  the  transfer 


1 70  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

of  American  securities  to  American  hands.  Enorm- 
ous French  and  English  and  other  holdings  of  Ameri- 
can bonds  and  stocks  have  been  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum. Two-thirds  of  the  world's  gold  reserve  is  in 
American  banks.  The  United  States  has  changed  in 
four  swift  years  from  a  debtor  to  a  creditor  country; 
the  world's  financial  capital  has  shifted  from  London 
to  New  York.  In  the  same  period  the  incidence  and 
degree  of  the  balance  of  trade  have  changed,  not  only 
in  relation  to  the  democratic  belligerents  but  also  to 
South  America  and  Asia  and  Africa.  The  German 
submarine  campaign  has  compelled  the  creation  of  a 
shipping  policy  that  converts  American  shipping  into 
a  powerful  rival  of  the  English,  and  the  needs  of  re- 
construction are  more  than  likely  to  restrict  the  handi- 
caps of  this  rivalry  to  the  English.  In  consequence 
of  these  changes  there  have  been  created  great  finan- 
cial organizations  designed  "to  put  America  on  the 
map"  in  the  matter  of  the  export  of  capital  for  invest- 
ment in  undeveloped  countries  abroad  in  loans,  con- 
cessions, and  so  on,  with  the  necessary  concomitants 
at  home  of  programs  of  heavy  armaments  and  univer- 
sal military  service.  Other  organizations  have  been 
formed  to  exploit  and  develop  the  commercial  advan- 
tages gained  at  the  expense  of  our  associates  during 
the  war,  and  still  others  are  proposed  to  carry  the 
United  States  into  direct  competition  with  England 
in  the  matter  of  shipping.  The  interests  here  involved 
assert  themselves  forcibly,  and  their  power  at  the 
peace  table  may  not  be  questioned.  Even  if  they 
are  without  direct  representation  among  the  delegates 
of  the  United  States,  they  will  be  well  represented 
wherever  financial  imperialism  is  represented.  The 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     171 

operations  of  the  nuncios  of  these  interests  from  other 
countries  may  compel  defense  of  their  American 
counterparts  by  the  emissaries  of  this.  Their  power 
over  the  agencies  of  public  opinion,  moreover,  is  notori- 
ous. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  interesting  administration 
of  the  Espionage  Act  has  immensely  weakened,  if  not 
paralyzed,  the  forces  of  liberalism  that  might  effec- 
tively have  opposed  this  imperialism.  To  substitute 
for  the  persistent  individualism  of  our  national  life 
national  unity  in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  the  constitu- 
tional rights  of  men  were  suspended.  Power  over 
their  utterances  on  the  platform  or  in  the  press  fell 
into  the  hands  of  irresponsible  and  often  not  disinter- 
ested persons.  Reflective  and  liberal  opinion  were 
distrusted  by  the  government,  and  howled  down  and 
silenced  by  a  patrioteering  press,  the  same  press, 
notably,  that  is  now  devoting  itself  so  assiduously  to 
denouncing  and  underaiining  —  not,  presumably,  alto- 
gether of  its  own  initiative  —  the  policies  which  led 
America  into  the  war.  Nor  was  only  reflective  and 
liberal  opinion  distrusted.  Labor  was  distrusted. 
Instead  of  a  fundamental  movement  toward  industrial 
democracy  such  as  took  place  in  England  and  brought 
the  whole  heart  of  English  labor  into  the  winning  of 
the  war,  a  system  of  industrial  paternalism  was  worked 
out,  and  labor  was  drugged  with  awards  of  wages  and 
hours  and  conditions  into  a  prosperity  unregarding  of 
fundamentals  for  both  war  and  peace.  The  result  is 
that  labor  is  intellectually  and  as  an  organization  no 
farther  advanced  than  it  was  before  the  beginning  of 
the  war.  It  has  received  much  but  has  won  nothing. 
At  the  peace  table  it  is  as  likely  to  stand  with  tariff- 


I72  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

mongers  and  financial  imperialists  as  with  liberalism. 
The  same  thing  is  true  in  all  other  matters.  The 
silencing  of  liberalism  has  no  doubt  facilitated  the 
achievement  without  too  sharp  a  challenge  by  reaction 
of  a  number  of  things  liberals  advocate,  things  such 
as  the  nationalization  of  railroads,  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone lines,  express  service,  and  so  on.  But  in  these, 
as  in  the  matter  of  labor,  paternalism  has  been  substi- 
tuted for  the  normal  processes  of  democracy.  Opposi- 
tion has  bee;n  carefully  repressed,  not  destroyed.  Unity 
has  been  only  apparent,  not  real.  The  country  has 
been  liberal  by  executive  order,  not  by  the  force  of 
public  opinion.  With  the  result  that  there  is  a  politi- 
cal crisis  in  America,  a  crisis  in  which  the  Executive 
finds  itself  with  an  opposing  legislature,  and  no  effica- 
cious public  instrumentalities  to  bring  this  legislature 
to  reason.  Face  to  face  with  peace,  the  conflicts 
existing  before  the  war  and  repressed  by  its  coming 
manifest  themselves  over  a  wider  extent  and  more 
bitterly,  with  the  liberals  on  whom  the  Executive 
must  depend  at  a  decided  disadvantage.  It  is  under 
these  conditions  that  the  Executive  goes  to  the  peace 
table. 

Over  this  table  will  loom  a  gigantic  and  fearful 
spectre.  The  dictators  of  public  opinion  have  decreed 
that  this  spectre  shall  be  called  "Bolshevism."  When 
Napoleon  had  been  crushed  in  i8i5  as  the  Hohen- 
zollern  was  cut  off  in  1918,  there  was  a  looming  spec- 
tre over  the  peace  table  at  Vienna.  The  spectre  was 
called  Democracy.  The  Bolshevism  of  1918  bears 
the  same  relation  to  the  peace  of  1918  that  the  De- 
mocracy of  i8i5  bore  to  the  peace  of  i8i5.  The  one 
is  the  direct  descendant  of  the  other,  married  to  indus- 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     178 

try.  If  war  is  not  to  be  followed  by  social  revolution 
all  over  Europe  it  is  necessary  that  "  Bolshevism  "- 
which  is  only  an  ugly  way  of  saying  the  disagreeable 
"Socialism"  and  the  less  disagreeable  "Industrial  De- 
mocracy"—  shall  be  understood  and  reasoned  with, 
not  denounced  and  persecuted.  Rightminded  men 
know  that  proper  treatment  immediately  converts  the 
spectre  of  disorder  into  the  spirit  of  freedom. 

Which  it  shall  be  wiU  depend  entirely  on  how  the 
problems  of  the  construction  of  peace  are  faced  — 
whether  in  the  manner  of  the  Holy  Alliance  or  in  the 
temper  of  the  true  democratic  League  of  Nations. 
This,  again,  will  depend  on  which  of  three  groups  of 
interests  dominates  the  peace  conference. 

These  three  groups  could  be  distinguished  through- 
out the  war,  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  One  is 
the  kinship  of  the  rank  and  file  that  fights  wars,  that 
is  war,  without  whose  supreme  sacrifice  no  war  can 
be  made.  It  is  the  aggregation  of  the  "plain  people" 
to  whose  demands  of  the  governments  of  Europe  to 
state  their  peace  terms  the  President  of  the  United 
States  referred  in  his  great  address  of  September  27. 
The  voice  of  this  group  is  the  Interallied  Labor  and 
Socialist  Conference.  Its  spontaneously  adopted  leader 
is  Woodrow  Wilson.  In  all  the  lands  of  the  Alliance  it 
has  surrendered  its  all  to  the  cause  —  its  sons  to  battle, 
its  hard-won  and  hardly-defended  rights  of  labor  to 
efficiency,  its  liberty  to  unity,  its  future  —  to  the 
governments  that  have  pledged  it  safety  and  oppor- 
tunity and  freedom  as  the  reward  of  victory. 

Another  group  was  first  and  last  financial  and  im- 
perialist. It  was  concerned  only  with  the  security 
and  expansion  of  its  investments.  It  was  eager  to 


I74  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

insure  the  high  returns  on  loans  to  Russia  and  con- 
cessions in  China  and  Syria  and  colonies  in  Africa,  to 
the  point  of  utterly  destroying  all  rivalry.  From  this 
group  came  the  bitter-enders,  the  jusquau  boutistes, 
the  avengers  and  punishers,  self-dedicated  to  the  de- 
struction of  all  competition,  not  at  home  nor  in  Europe, 
truly,  but  in  Syria  and  China  and  Middle  Africa. 

The  third  group  was  of  the  same  order  as  the  second. 
The  interest  which  is  its  soul  is,  however,  a  much  more 
venerable  one,  and  its  affiliations  in  the  structure  and 
dominances  of  European  societies  are  much  more 
complicated.  It  sees  more  truly  and  more  deeply 
than  the  second  group,  and  it  is  afraid,  dangerously 
afraid.  It  sees  that  what  has  been  an  issue  in  the 
war  and  remains  even  more  fearfully  an  issue  for  the 
peace  is  no  mere  rivalry  for  concessions  or  colonies 
or  spheres  of  influence,  is  none  of  the  tawdry  aspira- 
tions of  imperialism,  whether  in  feudal  and  cultural 
garbage  as  in  Germany  or  nakedly  financial  as  in 
France  or  England  or  Italy.  It  saw  at  issue  in  the 
war  the  very  structure  of  society  by  whose  ordering 
it  held  the  privileged  mastership  of  mankind.  It  was 
and  remains  afraid  of  the  destruction  of  this  compli- 
mentary and  agreeable  structure.  Its  most  conspicu- 
ous voice  has  been  Lord  Lansdowne.  It  is  the  source 
of  the  most  potent  defeatist  propaganda  conducted 
among  the  Allies,  both  in  financial  circles  and  in  the 
world  of  Labor.  In  the  latter  there  has  been  doubt 
about  the  purposes  of  governments,  but  never  defeat- 
ism. Defeatism,  the  record  indicates,  was  a  capitalis- 
tic-feudal ideal,  an  aspiration  not  of  men  but  of  mas- 
ters anxious  over  their  prerogratives  in  the  institutions 
of  civilization. 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     i75 

The  two  latter  groups  stand  over  against  the  first 
group.  Their  interests  are  opposed  beyond  any  recon- 
ciliation. There  cannot  be  arranged  between  them  a 
peace  without  victory  which  shall  at  the  same  time 
be  just  and  lasting. 

For  this  reason  there  is  a  crisis  also  among  the 
Allies  which  at  the  peace  table  will  be  assuaged  or  be 
converted  into  revolution. 

Orderly  growth  in  prosperity  and  freedom  or  revolu- 
tion! Whether  the  one  will  come  or  the  other  will 
depend  largely  on  the  side  which  America  favors  at 
the  peace  table.  Free  from  the  "entangling  alliances" 
of  secret  treaties,  prosperous  through  the  misfortunes 
of  her  associates  beyond  the  dreams  of  finance,  the 
making  or  breaking  of  Europe  rests  with  the  United 
States.  From  the  United  States  will  need  to  come  a 
great  proportion  of  the  treasure  necessary  for  the 
restoration  of  France  and  Belgium  and  Serbia  and 
Palestine.  From  the  United  States  will  need  to  come 
for  many  years  the  food  and  the  materials,  raw  and 
finished,  essential  to  restoration  of  the  normalities  of 
Europe.  And  they  will  have  to  be  carried  in  American 
bottoms.  If  the  American  delegates  at  the  peace 
conference  take  their  cues  from  the  European  impe- 
rialists they  will  have  to  drive  sharp  bargains,  and  the 
League  of  Nations  they  will  create  will  be  a  Holy 
Alliance  for  the  exploitation  of  the  world,  an  unstable 
alliance  with  a  chafing  and  reproachful  England,  a 
recalcitrant  France  and  a  sullen  Japan.  The  choice 
will  be  with  them  because  the  power  is  with  them. 

If  the  American  delegates  take  their  cue  from  the 
imperialists  the  decision  is  not  unlikely  to  be  for 
"orderly,"  that  is,  reactionary  and  even  monarchical 


176  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

government  in  Germany,  for  intervention  in  Russia 
on  a  large  scale,  in  order  to  reestablish  "order";  the 
" self-determination  of  peoples"  will  be  a  hypocrisy 
and  Mr.  Bertrand  Russell's  prediction  that  American 
troops  may  be  used  to  shoot  down  European  strikers 
may  come  true.  As  the  President  of  the  United  States 
pointed  out  on  January  8,  1918,  the  acid  test  of  the 
sincerity  of  the  Allies  will  lie  in  their  treatment  of 
Russia.  Russia  —  not  the  Russia  of  the  Czar  and  his 
fellow-traitors  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies  —  but  the 
true  Russia,  the  Russia  of  Tolstoi  and  Gorki,  of  Lvov 
and  Kerensky,  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky,  has  made  the 
greatest  of  sacrifices  in  this  war  of  peoples  against 
privileges.  Eight  millions  of  Russian  manhood  has 
payed  the  penalty  on  the  battlefield,  paid  because  of 
the  treachery  of  its  leadership,  not  because  of  the 
strength  of  the  enemy;  paid  because  the  military 
weakness  of  the  Allies  in  the  West  twice  called  for  a 
great  immolation  in  the  East.  This  must  not  be  for- 
gotten. Nor  must  it  be  forgotten,  if  the  reports  of 
most  reliable  and  disinterested  eyewitnesses  are  true, 
that  Russia,  even  the  Russia  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky, 
disabled  from  carrying  on  the  war  with  arms  carried 
it  on  with  ideas,  carried  it  on  in  the  heart  of  Germany 
and  with  victorious  effect.  From  Berne  and  Moscow, 
from  Berlin  and  from  Copenhagen,  her  educational 
propaganda,  begun  before  Brest-Litovsk,  went  out. 
It  permeated  the  workers.  It  strengthened  the  hands 
of  the  Independent  Socialists,  the  only  effective  opposi- 
tion at  home  which  German  imperialism  faced.  It 
wore  down  the  supporting  economic  organization  be- 
hind the  beaten  but  not  defeated  German  army.  In 
spite  of  the  protests  and  menances  of  the  imperial 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     177 

German  government  it  went  on,  from  the  hearth  of 
the  Russian  embassy  in  Berlin  itself.  It  went  on  as 
the  Russian  emissaries  had  at  Brest-Litovsk  declared 
it  would  go  on.  It  truly  hastened  victory.  This  also 
must  not  be  forgotten. 

Europe  and  America  owe  their  liberation  from  the 
Teuton  menace  in  no  small  degree  to  the  men  and 
women  of  Russia.  With  what  coin  will  they  repay 
Russia?  With  the  imposition  upon  the  people  of 
Russia  of  a  government  of  "law  and  order"  by  the 
force  of  Allied  and  American  arms?  With  the  insur- 
ance of  the  loans  of  foreign  bondholders  to  the  Czarist 
government  that  betrayed  them,  by  the  force  of 
Allied  and  American  arms?  Or  with  assistance  to  any 
and  all  constructive  social  agencies  in  Russia  to  restore 
agriculture  and  industry,  to  reestablish  and  multiply 
communications,  and  to  let  the  Russian  people 
determine  for  themselves  what  sort  of  government 
they  wish?  They  are  not  less  competent  than  the 
Mexicans,  and  they  deserve  infinitely  better  at  the 
hands  of  Europe  and  America.  "The  treatment 
accorded  to  Russia  by  her  sister  nations  in  the 
months  to  come,"  said  the  President  of  the  United 
States  on  January  8,  1918,  "will  be  the  acid  test  of 
their  good  will,  of  their  comprehension  of  her  need  as 
distinguished  from  their  own  interests,  and  of  their  in- 
telligent and  unselfish  sympathy."  (The  italics  are 
mine.)  What  "sister  nation,"  one  wonders,  has  shown 
true  gold  under  this  acid  test,  or  is  likely  to  show? 

With  the  gage  of  Armageddon  which  is  Russia 
belongs  properly  also  that  congeries  of  new  states 
created  by  the  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  and 
independence  of  Czecho-Slovacks,  Poles,  Jugo-Slavs, 


178  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

Serbs,  Montenegrins  and  other  central-European  na- 
tionalities. Each  one  of  these  nationalities  domi- 
nates a  territory  inhabited  by  large  minorities  of 
other  nationalities.  In  each  one  of  these  states,  and 
particularly  in  those  others  created  by  Brest-Litovsk, 

-  in  Finland,  the  Baltic  provinces,  Ukrainia,  —  and 
still  more  particularly  in  Rumania,  peasant  is  vio- 
lently arrayed  against  exploiting  landlord,  workman 
against  employer.    The  conflict  between  nationalities 

-Ruthenes  against  Poles  in  Poland,  Croats  against 
Serbs  in  Jugo-Slavia,  Germans  against  Czechs  and 
Slovaks  in  Bohemia,  all  nationalities  against  Jews 
everywhere,  but  particularly  in  Poland  and  Rumania 

-  this  conflict  of  nationalities  is  complicated  further- 
more by  a  conflict  of  religious  sects,  —  Catholic  against 
Orthodox  against  Lutheran  against  Socialist —  and  that 
is  crossed  by  the  fundamental  warfare  of  masses  and 
classes.    The  acid  test  in  these  instances  will  be  the 
steps  taken  to  safeguard  national  and  religious  minori- 
ties and  to  safeguard  the  freedom  of  men  from  the 
usurpations  of  property.     Armageddon  is  certain  in 
this  portion  of  central  Europe  if,  as  would  suit  financial 
imperialism,  political  sovereignties  are  allowed  their 
traditional  unregulated  and  irresponsible  sway,  and  if 
economic  equality  and  freedom  should  fail  to  get  es- 
tablished for  them  as  for  the  thirteen  sovereign  states 
of  the  United  States  of  America. 

This  cannot,  however,  be  done  without  an  effective 
organization  of  the  League  of  Nations  in  accord  with 
the  principles  laid  down  by  President  Wilson,  and 
along  the  lines  described  in  this  book.  But  will  it 
be  done?  What  will  the  government  of  England  do, 
when  now,  already,  Mr.  Hughes  of  Australia  is  shout- 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     179 

ing  down  a  just  peace  in  Australia's  interest;  when  now, 
already,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  has  declared  for  "imperial 
preference"  in  trade  and  commerce,  for  the  integra- 
tion of  the  British  Empire  against  the  world?  Now 
already  the  large  shipping  interests  of  England  and 
the  British  navalists  are  acting  on  the  assumption 
that  the  American  attitude  at  the  peace  table  will 
partake  of  the  imperialism  which  is  most  natural  to 
their  own.  They  are  preparing  for  a  bitter  competi- 
tion in  shipping  and  in  trade.  Nor  are  they  too  likely 
to  welcome  any  alternative  to  it,  for  an  alternative 
must  carry  with  it  the  entire  revision  of  the  relation 
of  Britain  to  the  high  seas.  It  must  carry  with  it 
the  establishment  of  the  League  of  Nations.  "The 
freedom  of  the  seas"  and  the  League  of  Nations  are, 
as  has  already  been  shown,  to  a  large  degree  coinci- 
dent. It  is  a  peculiarly  American  principle,  and  Mr. 
Wilson  has  adhered  to  it  from  his  first  word  on  peace 
conditions  to  his  last.  His  definitive  formulation  of 
this  principle  was  made  in  his  address  to  the  Senate, 
January  22,  1917: 

"So  far  as  practicable,  moreover,  every  great 
people  now  struggling  toward  a  full  development 
of  its  resources  and  of  its  powers  should  be  as- 
sured a  direct  outlet  to  the  great  highways  of  the 
sea.  Where  this  cannot  be  done  by  the  cession  of 
territory  it  can  no  doubt  be  done  by  the  neutrali- 
zation of  direct  rights  of  way  under  the  general 
guarantee  which  will  assure  peace  itself.  With 
a  right  comity  of  arrangement  no  nation  need  be 
shut  away  from  free  access  to  the  open  paths  of 
the  world's  commerce. 


i8o  THE  LEAGUE  OF  NATIONS 

"And  the  paths  of  the  sea  must  alike  in  law  and 
in  fact  be  free.  The  freedom  of  the  seas  is  the 
sine  qua  non  of  peace,  equality,  and  cooperation. 
No  doubt  a  somewhat  radical  reconsideration  of 
many  of  the  rules  of  international  practice  hitherto 
sought  to  be  established  may  be  necessary  in  order 
to  make  the  seas  indeed  free  and  common  in 
practically  all  circumstances  for  the  use  of  man- 
kind, but  the  motive  for  such  changes  is  convinc- 
ing and  compelling.  There  can  be  no  trust  or 
intimacy  between  the  peoples  of  the  world  with- 
out them. 

"  The  free,  constant,  unthreatened  intercourse  of 
nations  is  an  essential  part  of  the  process  of  peace 
and  of  development.  It  need  not  be  difficult  to 
define  or  to  secure  the  freedom  of  the  seas  if  the 
Governments  of  the  world  sincerely  desire  to  come 
to  an  agreement  concerning  it." 

This  formulation  stands.  It  is  accepted  by  the 
masses  of  England,  by  the  masses  of  Europe.  It  is 
a  part  of  the  explicit  program  of  these  masses.  With 
whom,  at  the  negotiations  at  the  peace  table,  will  the 
representatives  of  America  feel  themselves  forced  to 
stand?  If  they  are  persuaded  by  the  imperialists - 
and  why  may  they  not  be  persuaded  —  or  forced?  - 
they  will  betray  these  masses  who  have  taken  their 
guidance  and  leadership  from  America.  And  if  they 
are  persuaded  by  the  imperialists  they  will  occasion 
in  France  and  in  England  and  in  Italy  precisely  the 
disorder  that  has  overtaken  Switzerland  and  Holland 
and  Belgium  and  Spain.  They  will  extend  to  the 
whole  of  Europe  the  revolution  of  Russia  and  of 


ARMAGEDDON  AT  THE  PEACE  TABLE     181 

Central  Europe.  This  is  in  their  power,  because  of 
the  key-position  which  the  United  States,  through 
the  advantages  gained  by  the  misfortunes  of  Europe, 
occupies  today  in  the  economy  of  the  world. 

If  they  are  persuaded  by  the  imperialists  they  will 
be  persuaded  because  they  are  afraid.  Because  they 
are  afraid  of  the  bugaboo  "Bolshevism."  But  for 
America  they  need  not  be  afraid.  The  individualistic 
character  of  life  in  America  renders  impossible  that 
type  of  class-unity  without  which  "Bolshevism" 
is  impotent.  The  impotence  of  the  Socialists  as  a 
political  party,  the  attitude  of  American  Labor  to- 
ward Socialist  doctrine  and  programs  should  make 
that  clear  beyond  question.  Until  American  society 
has  the  density  and  stratification  of  society  in  Europe, 
Socialism  cannot  take  root  in  the  United  States.  In 
Europe  it  springs  as  naturally  and  inevitably  from 
the  character  of  European  society  as  individualism 
does  from  American.  For  this  reason,  the  attempt 
to  escape  it  by  embracing  imperialism  will  only  sub- 
stitute for  the  reconstruction  of  legislative  reform  the 
reconstruction  of  civil  war.  The  way  to  meet  "Bol- 
shevism" is  to  cooperate  with  it,  to  neutralize  its 
power  for  evil  by  making  it  an  ally,  by  giving  it  also 
an  interest  in  maintaining  the  relevant  aspects  of  the 
present  order  of  the  world,  and  leaving  men  and 
women  free  in  their  own  lands  to  choose  for  them- 
selves between  the  conflicting  elements  of  the  two 
orders.  Such  a  cooperation  is  possible  only  through 
a  League  of  Nations  constituted  democratically  and 
grounded  on  the  community  of  economic  interest 
and  action  between  self-governing  peoples. 


THE 
STRUCTURE  OF  LASTING  PEACE 

By  H.  M.  KALLEN,  PH.D. 

A  MERICA'S  paramount  aim  in  the  war  is  to  establish 
J~\  a  League  of  Nations  and  secure  lasting  Peace.  There 
are  many  forces  and  interests  at  home  and  abroad  which 
regard  this  aim  as  Utopian.  They  declare  that  it  is  con- 
trary to  human  nature,  that  the  "vital  interests"  of  nations 
render  armament  and  war  inevitable.  Dr.  Kallen  teets  this 
declaration  by  an  examination  of  the  motives  said  to  under- 
lie war.  He  discusses  the  development,  nature,  and  purposes 
of  states,  nations,  and  nationalities,  the  significance  of  sov- 
ereignty, and  the  reciprocal  interplay  of  these  with  the 
economic  interests  which  underlie  civilization.  By  means 
of  a  striking  analysis  of  the  history  of  our  own  country 
between  1776  and  1789,  he  shows  how,  in  the  creation  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  a  League  of  Nations  was  in 
fact  established  and  lasting  peace  secured.  His  argument 
is  that  what  was  attained  for  America  can  be  attained  for 
the  world. 

"  It  cannot  but  prepare  the  mind  for  the  peace  conference,  and  it 
presents  in  admirable  form  the  issues  on  which  public  opinion  ought  to 
be  elicited."  —  F.  H.  in  The  New  Republic. 

"  Better  than  any  author  I  know  Kallen  manages  to  combine  a  real 
feeling  for  Nationalism  as  a  fact  in  politics,  with  a  due  recognition 
of  the  dire  need  for  an  international  system.  His  book  on  'The 
Structure  of  Lasting  Peace'  is  a  fine  piece  of  work." 

—  NORMAN  ANGELL. 

"  Not  merely  a  notable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  international 
reconstruction  after  the  war,  but  helps  to  make  clear  the  extent  to 
which  American  ideals  are  involved  in  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  ^the 
war  and  the  securing  of  a  decisive  victory  over  German  autocracy." 

—  JOHN  DEWEY. 

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